Arson fire breaks out at condemned Budgetel. Officials anticipate there will be more.
Hours before someone propped two twin mattresses under a stairwell and set them ablaze at the Budgetel Inns & Suites on Thursday night, Modesto firefighters were there training in anticipation of a fire.
Modesto’s Board of Building Appeals last week voted to condemn the McHenry Avenue motel and the Modesto Irrigation District shut off power for nonpayment.
The former operator, United Resorts LLC, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Jan. 25 and closed the business the next day, but some people refuse to leave, saying they were not properly evicted.
Modesto Fire Department Battalion Chief Darin Jesberg said there were about 20 people milling about the motel’s courtyard and pool area and some could be seen in rooms when firefighters responded to the motel just before midnight.
The mattresses were smoldering when crews arrived. A security guard reportedly used five fire extinguishers to put the fire out, Jesberg said.
The fire is being treated as arson, said Lt. Dave Hutchinson, commander of the Stanislaus Regional Fire Investigation Unit.
Jesberg said crews were at the motel earlier in the day planning for potential fires and getting familiar with the building.
“There are still people living in and around the building,” he said. “We wanted crews to get familiar with the current situation, get started on tactics ... think about how they are going to attack the fire. It poses a significant risk to ourselves and the folks who may be living in there still because it is boarded up.”
He said security guards told him some of the people living there are “tunneling through walls” to connect the rooms, creating a significant structural risk.
