Blaze damage exceeds $1 million

A fire that damaged half of the Carson Valley Inn Motor Lodge was started when sparks from a brazing torch ignited a plastic vent tube inside a crawl space.

No estimate on the cost of the damage to the Minden motel has been completed, according to Bill Henderson, Inn director of marketing.

Fire Marshal Terry Taylor said a preliminary estimate of damage to the building structure was $1 million.

However, he deferred to Henderson when it comes to the total. Henderson said he and the insurance company are still working on a price tag for the damage.

"I don't know yet. Everyone wants a figure but we don't have one," he said. "The issue is going to be if they tear down that front building or not," he said. "The back unit's got a lot of smoke damage and it's not usable until we're done rebuilding."

Taylor said the workers had no way of knowing they'd set the fire until it was too late.

"The area where the initial ignition took place is a void space that runs the length of the building," Taylor said.

The space is about 18 inches wide and 12 feet high and is capped on both ends.

"It is very, very difficult to get access to," Taylor said.

Once the tube ignited, the fire spread to the insulation's paper backing and then into the wood frame.

"They had all the tools and requirements for fire safety there," he said. "But they could not tell what was going on. The fire was hiding from them and us."

Taylor said that by the time the fire was discovered it was too late to prevent it from doing serious damage to the building.

"The fire built up a large amount of heat before it breached into the attic," Taylor said. "It came out hot and fast."

The motor lodge was built in 1993 and met the building code at the time, according to Taylor.

Henderson said the Inn has received calls from all over expressing their best wishes.

"The response has been amazing, just amazing," he said.

No one was injured and no personal property lost during the course of the blaze.

The fire broke out in the motor lodge, which had been closed for renovation, Monday morning. More than 70 Carson Valley volunteers, Carson City and Tahoe-Douglas firefighters responded to the fire. It took longer than three hours to extinguish the blaze.