Firefighters are still keeping an eye on an historic building that was gutted by fire in downtown Orange City Sunday evening. Fire chief Denny Vander Wel says it was a difficult fire to fight. Vander Wel says the second floor of building once served as a hotel with individual rooms, which hindered their ability to fight the fire.
The four walls of the building are still standing, but Vander Wel says it’s a total loss. He says the roof is burned off, and most of the interior is gone. Vander Wel says a nearby building suffered smoke and water damage as they put some 600-thousand gallons of water on the building, and that water ran into the other building. Vender Wel says their job isn’t done yet.
Vander Wel says there are too many hot spots, and they’ve been applying water ever half hour to 45 minutes, and they will be there the rest of the day trying cool the hot spots down. An investigator from the State Fire Marshal’s office is expected to be on the scene Tuesday to help determine a cause of the fire.