SEYMOUR, Tenn. (WVLT) -- An east Tennessee family is hoping and praying tonight after two of their loved ones are critically burned in a motel fire.

70 year old Nancy Louise Riggs and 63 year old James Petree are both being treated at Nashville University Medical Center

It's a really sad situation. Family members say they couldn't get the couple into a nursing home so for the last month they've been staying at the motel.

They were waiting for renovations to a home next to theirs so they could take care of them.

But then fire struck their motel room.

"I was in shock. I was trying to find a way to the hospital and stuff and I talked to my mom and she said that they were taking them to Vanderbilt," says Shanda Gibson.

Gibson is still worried about her grandmother, Louise Riggs, and her grandmother's boyfriend, James Petree, who were taken to Vanderbilt hospital after fire broke out in their rental room at the Wayoma Motel in Seymour Tuesday night.

Chief Chuck Godfrey says the fire began around 10:20 pm and it was under control in just five minutes.

But family members say both had health issues.

"Like I'd tell him to call. He couldn't remember the number, stuff like that. Louise had a little trouble walking, getting around," says Kenneth Hickman.

Hickman says his girlfriend wasn't able to get the couple in a nursing home so the motel was a temporary fix until a nearby home could be renovated.

"We tried to get them this house here next door where we could watch then because there were too many people here," says Hickman.

But before the next door home could be renovated, the fire...
now both are in critically injured and being treated at Nashville's Vanderbilt Hospital.

Hickman says his girlfriend cried in their phone conversation while she was on the way to the hospital to see her mother, Louise.

"I think she's feeling pretty guilty about it but she did the best she could to try to get them back there and stuff then this happened," says Hickman.

Now, the family is hoping and praying for the best.

"Are you worried about them? Yeah. I hope they'll be OK. Both of them," says Gibson.

Fire investigators says the fire began on a couch in the
couple's room, but how it started isn't yet known.

Seymour fire Chief Chuck Godfrey says there was not a smoke detector in the room when they arrived.

Godfrey says this morning they checked every room at the motel and made sure working smoke detectors were installed before they left.