Family staying at hotel after fire loses everything again in hotel fire

SOMERSET, Ky. (WKYT) - A Kentucky family is working to recover after they lost everything in a fire for the second time in weeks.

Earlier this week, WKYT told you about a fire at the Best Western hotel in somerset on Highway 27.

Fire officials say the fire started in the hotel’s attic and grew fast. The hotel was left with significant damage.

They say everyone made it out safe, including one family who happened to be staying at the hotel because of a fire that happened at their own house just weeks before.

“Here we go again. Let’s make some phone calls and try to figure out if we can get the kids some clothes and shoes so that they can go to school tomorrow,” said Kaitlyn Estes.

Estes, her boyfriend and her two children are now homeless. Their house caught on fire earlier this month and they lost everything. She says, luckily, they weren’t home at the time.

“It was the house that I brought both of my kids home to. They were both born into that house. When it comes to like their baby books and stuff, that’s pretty much what I was most distraught about,” said Estes.

Estes says the first hotel they stayed at after the fire was too small for the family, so they were looking forward to what they thought would be a comfortable stay at the Best Western in Somerset.

“We had just gotten enough stuff to where the kids had an outfit for every day of the week, so I could send them to school every day of the week.”

After just a few days there, the hotel went up in flames. Estes says they weren’t there when it happened, but pulled up just as part of hotel started to collapse.

“All of a sudden we seen the fourth floor collapse into the third and the third collapse into the second,” said Estes.

The Somerset Fire Department says, because of where the fire was, the sprinkler system didn’t activate automatically. All available off-duty firefighters and available county departments were called to help.

“Now, we’re having to start over again,” Estes said.

Estes says they lost money that was donated to them after their house fire. She says they were saving it so they can get back on their feet.

“It was in that hotel room, so now we have to figure out how we’re going to get rent for a deposit again,” Estes said.

Estes and her family are now at a third hotel.

“I’m just trying to stay focused and stay positive,” she said.

The Somerset fire chief says the hotel fire is still under investigation.

According to Best Western Somerset’s website, they’re temporarily closed. We did reach out to headquarters to see if they could give us an answer on when it’ll reopen, but we have not heard back yet.

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