The Budget Inn, on Route 45 in Mattoon, is now closed because of the damage. Rakesh Patel sifted through debris at the motel he owns. The Budget Inn was also home for Patel. He lived there along with his mother, wife and two young girls. But yesterday, a fire that started in the storage room kicked them out. "In my entire life, I haven't seen that," Patel recalls. When he smelled the smoke, he began trying to fight the fire himself. He went through two fire extinguishers. But Mattoon fire chief Mike Chism says, "that fire had gotten such a good start on him that the fire extinguishers at that point didn't do any good." Firefighters were able to keep the fire in one corner of the motel. Patel's room was untouched by the flames, but everything he had in storage is gone. "It's like ruined my life kinda stuff, I just put everything i had in here. I don't have any words for it. It's bad." Firefighters say the fire was an accident, but they're still investigating how it started. Everyone made it out of the motel safely.
