The State - News from July 20, 1987

A blaze in an old residential hotel in Oakland believed to have been set by children playing with matches left up to 100 people homeless, officials said. The Oakland Red Cross was providing emergency housing for residents of the Fremont Hotel after a fire gutted several apartments, causing at least $50,000 in damage, Assistant Fire Chief Don Matthews said. Although some of the apartments were habitable, the manager of the three-story building refused to allow residents back into the building after the Fire Department cut off electricity, Matthews said.