A wrongful death claim alleges a deadly hazard went unaddressed days before a second fatality.
EUREKA, CA – Two women died in the same room at a Eureka motel within five days, raising questions about safety failures and prompting a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of one victim. The deaths at the Lamplighter Inn, a property in this northern California port city, have drawn scrutiny after elevated carbon monoxide levels were discovered following the second incident.
On Feb. 21, emergency crews responded to reports of two unconscious people at the motel around 2 p.m. A 37-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene, while another person was transported to a hospital. Authorities initially suspected a drug overdose. Five days later, around noon on Feb. 26, responders were called again to the same room for another report of two unconscious people. A second woman, identified in the lawsuit as Samantha Hanna, was pronounced dead, and another guest was hospitalized in critical condition.
Carbon monoxide concerns emerge
Following the second incident, Humboldt Bay firefighters reportedly showed signs of carbon monoxide exposure and tested the air inside the room. Elevated carbon monoxide levels were detected, and officials found no carbon monoxide detectors present. The city shut down the motel immediately after the discovery.
The lawsuit filed by Samuel Hanna, Samantha Hanna’s father, alleges the motel’s owners failed to address a known hazard despite having prior notice. The complaint states, “Prior to [Samantha’s] death, Defendants were on actual and/or constructive notice that the Lamplighter Motel presented a lethal carbon monoxide hazard to guests.” It further notes that a “strikingly similar incident occurred at the same motel and in the same room” just days earlier.
The complaint accuses owners Harjinder K. Heer and Surinder S. Heer of failing to take basic safety steps after the first death. “Rather than immediately shutting down operations, conducting a competent inspection, identifying and eliminating the source of carbon monoxide, installing and confirming the presence of required detectors, and ensuring the room was safe for human occupancy, Defendants failed to adequately remedy the condition and continued to expose unsuspecting guests to a known deadly danger,” the filing states. “Defendants’ conduct was despicable and carried out with a conscious disregard for the rights and safety of motel guests, including [Samantha].”
Inspection history and legal action
According to the lawsuit, the Lamplighter Inn had already been cited for safety violations during a July 2025 fire inspection, which attorneys say should have prompted corrective action. The complaint alleges conditions worsened by February 2026, stating “the danger had become so severe that even responding fire personnel experienced symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure upon entering the room[.]”
The filing argues the second death could have been prevented. “[H]ad Defendants closed the motel and taken the Premises out of service after the February 21 incident, as basic safety required, Decedent’s death on February 26, 2026 would never have happened,” the complaint states, adding, “The Lamplighter Motel was not a property that should have remained open to the public.”
Eureka police said Friday there were no updates available in the investigation. Meanwhile, attorneys for the Hanna family say they plan to pursue the case through discovery and trial. “We’re going to be engaged in a discovery process for the next several months to learn and get as much information as we can, and then we’re going to proceed to a jury trial as soon as the court gives us an available date,” attorney Jon Davidi told KRCR.
Samuel Hanna is seeking unspecified damages, including punitive damages, and described the loss of his daughter in personal terms. “She was my best friend and above and beyond, she was just an amazing young woman,” he said. “It’s just not something a monetary value is going to fix; it demands justice.”
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