Hotel physical status

How the fire worked and what it left us with.

by Claude Delphia (6/17/97)

Draft

Over the Fiesta Weekend, I heard a lot of comments about the Hotel as I watched the sale of collector plates, T-shirts and mugs being sold. The curiosity about the Hotel was great, as we had expected. However I wasn’t prepared for the amount of misinformation and the extent of the questions asked. Nor were we prepared for the people who just wanted a look at the Lobby. During the tour last March, some people exited feeling that there was a lot to save. Others left in tears.

What follows is a verbal description of the fire’s action and the physical structure that is left. I must warn you that this is a personal account and may not meet with others agreement. But even experts agree to disagree.

Two of the worst areas of misinformation regard the start of the fire and how it effected the building. If I hadn’t known the Hotel from top to bottom since 1959, I might have believed some of the misinformation myself. While my physical limitations have kept me from crawling over what’s left of the roof, I’ve climbed a ladder and looked out over what’s left and the what’s left of the roof is completely documented in photos. I’ve been through all other parts of the Hotel and stood in the solitary silence of the now demolished banquet room and studied the worst area of the fire area extensively.

We know exactly where the fire started and I was shown the burn start point before that area became off limits. As is well recorded, it started on one of the old work benches that have existed in the basement for 37 years that I know of. I can still see my father and his tools on that very bench. For those not knowing the basement but who were in the kitchen, the fire below started very close to the pillar next to the walk-in and the inside door to the basement.

The fire traveled up the backboards of the work bench and then reached the kitchen floor. It’s important to keep in mind that the outside basement door was open and there was a strong wind blowing. If the kitchen basement door was also open, the draft would have been tremendous. In addition, there were other vents around the lower level of the basement that could have caused a significant draft in that area.

What most don’t know, is that immediately above the old stairs going down to the basement, was a partial set of stairs that originally went up to the upstairs hall. This stairway was closed of in 1951 or so, so that the area could be turned into Room Number 1, the smallest of all guest rooms. Instead of removing the stairs, they were left completely in place until 1977 when Hazel Saylor put in a walk-in refrigerator in that area. The bottom half of the stairs was removed to make more room for the walk in. The upper half of the wood stairs were left in place. You could look up from the basement and see the wood underside of the second floor. In hindsight, the whole stairway should have been removed and sheet-rocked. But…

When the bathrooms were added to each room in 1951, getting the plumbing to each room meant tearing out a lot of walls and constructing plumbing "chases." These chases could be seen running along each side of the kitchen and held both sewer and water pipes.

When they removed part of the old staircase, they created and inside plumbing chase which ended at the old wood stairway. I can still remember Allen Hooper climbing up in this area as Vee and I watched. He described the area well. He was able to actually crawl above the walk-in to the place where the chase began. The chase was about one by two feet. It was a natural fire path.

In my analysis, the fire fanned out under the walk-in towards the two sets of old stairs and went immediately up to the wood underside of the second floor, all hidden from the view of firemen. So much so, that they were surprised when the fire broke out in the kitchen and then almost immediately in the bedrooms above. The plumbing chase went directly under Vern Hooper’s room, number 3, and stopped at room 6 next door. Room’s 1 and 3 were destroyed except for the hallway wall. Room 6 still has two walls and most of its floor intact. Actually the bathroom and parts of closets of room 6 were intact until we tore down the dangerous portions last fall. It even contained an unburned desk and several doors were salvaged. This room is actually above one corner of the old dining room about where the door way was between the dining and banquet rooms. We have erected special braces in that area until new floor joists can be spliced in.

When you look at the hotel from the back, it can be hard to identify what you are looking at. But basically you are seeing the three rooms described above. The long wall you see is the intact wall of west hallway. From the inside, the hallway looks almost untouched with it’s carpet unburned. While the hall floor is dangerous to walk on, it has been done as the floor boards are still intact.

As I’ve attempted to demonstrate, the fire didn’t go up from the basement to the attic between the studs as has been speculated. While that could have happened and did in a couple of instances, it was not the main method of fire spread. There is one wall right above the basement stairs where you can see how the fire tunneled up between the studs and there are several other interesting examples of the fire’s travel. But none of them led to the speed and kind of destruction that took place in the basement, kitchen and three guest rooms.

I think it’s safe to say that without the wind, the open stairwell and the plumbing chase, the fire would have been controlled, although very damaging.

The loss of the banquet room is somewhat less explainable. Every surface of the banquet room was scared by flames. It was as if the entire room was on fire in one big ball of flame. Unfortunetely that same open stairway had a couple of boarded over windows into the banquet room. The collector plates were actually stored in the banquet storage room right next the basement stairs with those windows.

There were also several old window openings that lead from the basement directly under the banquet floor. They were open and there was undoubtably a breeze pushing through there. Surprisingly, the doorways and windows from the kitchen to the banquet room remained partially intact due to the brick veneer facing the banquet room.

While the fireball in the banquet room seared every surface, some places charred up to a half in deep, the ceiling/roof did not burn through except in one corner above the doors to the old dining room. At one point, the window air conditioner from room 6 came loose and fell through the burning ceiling near the little bar.

At the moment I stood in the Lobby looking at the flames burning in the kitchen, I also saw the firemen gingerly open the Reunion Room door to the Lobby and start spraying the banquet room.

While the banquet room was a serious loss, the room was not part of the historic building having been built in the middle of 1955. Prior to that it was a patio eating area. Because of the serious damage to the banquet room, it was professionally demolished in November 1996. There were two reasons this had to be done. The first was it’s dangerous condition and the second was that we needed an area to dump debris in from the rooms upstairs. In effect it became a staging ground for debris removal. We removed one section of the rear wall so that loaders and trucks could drive into this area.

There was another important reason for the removal of what remained of the banquet room. Most of the brick veneer wall between the kitchen and banquet room remained standing with some sections between upstairs windows still intact. We knew this wall had to come down. All the way down. We discussed numerous ways of bringing it down safely and with a minimal destruction of brick. In the end, our contractor John Bristow and I decided that the wall would come down only after the banquet room was removed. This way we could let it fall outward into the former courtyard rather than inward into the kitchen and dining areas where it would undoubtedly do more damage. We would also have greater work to recover the brick if it fell into the basement.

We also knew that once that wall was down, we would have an open area to work from — the patio — to start the removal of the debris from the kitchen. We actually began that removal after the January rains, but then ran out of money for that purpose. By that time, we had strengthened most of the walls and other points enough so that most of the fence could be removed.

While the giant steel beams of the banquet room have been left in place, at least one of the big ones and the small one next to the kitchen are seriously warped and probably not salvageable. We have re-hung the High School front doors, but they are probably not salvageable and the arched windows in the back wall were burned out by the fire.

As most of you know, all of the roof was burned off at the upstairs ceiling line. There are a few locations where the flames started to move downward, especially in upper closet areas. But the damage is minimal and doesn’t’ effect the historic fabric of the building.

While many of you saw the left hand tower collapse into Vee’s living room and saw the center curved section with the flag-pole bend over into the flames, none of these rooms were seriously burned below the ceiling line. In fact the right tower remained standing for the most part because the ceiling rafters were only burned on the top edge. The insulation kept them from burning through for the most part.

We removed the partially burned rafters from the rooms facing the upper porch during the early stages of the cleanup. 2x4 cross bracing was put in to stabilize the front wall. As has been stated elsewhere, the flagpole did not burn and is resting on top of the front porch as are all of the wood pieces from the upper tile overhang.

Now about the structure of building itself.

The hotel is entirely a wood framed building and except for the kitchen and the three bedrooms above, that wood structure is intact. This is true even in the outer walls of the kitchen facing Las Palmas. We have checked these wall as much as possible and found no evidence of fire travelling up these walls to the second floor. Even the wall between the kitchen and dining room is two thirds intact. It prevented the spread of the fire to the main part of the dining room.

The reason the second floor above the kitchen is still standing is because the kitchen starting from the basement below, is constructed on heavy posts and beams, at least 12 x 12 inches, which did not come close to burning through. Without the overall wood structure that remains intact, none of us would be considering restoring the Hotel. For example none of the lobby’s wood work or structure were damage by the fire. The January rain had more effect on the lobby than the fire. In fact we didn’t remove the lobby carpet until February. It could have been cleaned and a couple of spots fixed, but it just wouldn’t dry out and we had to consider the original wood floors underneath.

The firemen removed a number of sections of plaster wall on the second to make sure that there was no burning inside the walls. One wall below the curved parapet on the front had live coals inside the walls, but they were stopped at fire-blocks. Yes, fire-blocks. Surprise, surprise, there is actually fire-blocking in some of the outside walls. Why? It certainly wasn’t common in 1910, but perhaps not unheard of. It is possible they were added in the 1951 remodeling, but not likely considering the walls they can be seen were not in areas remodeled.

Yet another surprise. The outer brick veneer hidden behind the thick coat of stucco is tied to diagonal bracing that is nailed to the out wall studs. About every 16 inches or so, huge nails were driven into the studs and mortared in the layers of brick. This together with the 1x2 diagonal bracing has made for a very solid exterior wall system. Keep in mind that all these dimensions are full size. None of the flimsy wood we see in current construction. While some people seem to almost extol the poor construction of the Hotel, the opposite is true. It’s better built than most houses today. Even the wiring only dates back to 1951. In 1993, the Hooper brothers, Allen and Vern completely removed and fixed every bit of old wiring they could get a hold of. They also re-plumbed every piece of water and sewer pipe they could get to.

Where the Hotel is deficient in comparison to new construction, is in the number of metal straps and other ties that a modern house or commercial building would have. But it’s greatest deficiency was it’s lack of fire blocking — not in the walls — but in the attic. The fire would never have burned the roof off; we wouldn’t have lost the curved parapet; and other parts of the front if their had been proper fire-walls in the attic.

Unfortunately this same held true for Hank’s Deli and Ace Hardware. Likewise Modesto’s biggest fire which destroyed a large part of McHenry Village a couple of years ago, was due to lack of attic fire-walls between the stores. Just one big common attic, just like the Hotel.

While there are many more details that I could cover here, the important point is that the Hotel is in far better shape than most people seem to think. Besides it’s historical value, we’ve been told by experts that the Hotel’s loss would be a severe blow to downtown Patterson. In addition, we’ve been told by experts, that if it can be restored, it will have definite commercial appeal.

Each of us has to decide why we want to see the Hotel restored and work towards that goal and then just keep on telling the truth about the physical status of the structure. We can’t do more than that. We can’t do less than that.