Children Playing With Lighter Set Motel 6 On Fire

Fire investigators say two young children who were left alone in a suburban Houston motel room were playing with a lighter that caused a three-alarm fire , resulting in minor injuries to seven people.

Rachel Moreno, spokeswoman for the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office, said Thursday that the two children, siblings who are 3 and 6 years old, were among the seven transported for evaluation.

Moreno says witnesses reported they saw the children holding a lighter while running from a room Wednesday at the Motel 6 North just off Interstate 45 about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Houston.

Moreno says their mother had hired a baby sitter to watch the children but the sitter left the hotel room for a time.