CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SANTA CRUZ : Fire Destroys Historic Hotel

An old hotel that became the center of a preservation battle after it was closed following last year’s earthquake has been gutted by fire. Firefighters were investigating the cause of the blaze at the 95-year-old St. George Hotel. Gas and electricity had been turned off since the St. George was boarded up after the Oct. 17 earthquake. There was a “good possibility” that transients may have broken into the hotel and started the fire, said San Cruz Fire Department Cmdr. Bill Bailey, who was not ruling out arson. “Let’s just say it’s suspicious,” he said. In recent decades, the once-proud St. George had fallen on hard times and had served as a residential hotel. Preservationists claimed the hotel was a historic building and fought to save it, but the City Council and many downtown merchants wanted it torn down.