Fire tears through vacant Van Nuys hotel that previously burned in 2013

Dozens of firefighters battled raging flames Sunday that tore through a vacant hotel in Van Nuys.

The fire was reported shortly after 2 p.m. at 6500 N. Sepulveda Blvd., in a two-story structure that last operated as the Voyager Motor Inn, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

The motel was closed and unoccupied. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Humphrey said.

The fire was extinguished by 169 firefighters in about three hours. No injuries were reported.

Firefighters were to remain overnight at the 45,000-square-foot building to douse the continued smoldering, Humphrey said.

Officials shut down Sepulveda between Victory Boulevard and Kittridge Street. Motorists were advised to avoid the area.

The structure was built in 1964 as an apartment building. It’s unclear when the building was converted into a hotel.

A 2013 fire at the then-open hotel left four people injured and destroyed about two-thirds of the property, fire officials told KTLA-TV Channel 5.

“It was a very tough fire to fight,” Battalion Chief Don Reyes told the news station at the time. The outcome of that fire investigation was not immediately available.

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