Woman charged in hotel fire deaths

Prosecutors filed 12 counts of first-degree murder against a woman they say started the deadliest fire in Reno’s history, an inferno that raced through a historic hotel in the downtown casino district on Halloween.

Valerie Moore, 47, a convicted murderer who was paroled a year ago, was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder the morning after the Oct. 31 fire that killed 12 and injured 31 at the Mizpah Hotel. Prosecutors had put off filing formal charges until a search for victims in the building’s rubble was completed.