Fire leaves historic Hotel Marysville at risk of collapsing. City declares state of emergency.
MARYSVILLE — A state of emergency has been declared by the City of Marysville in response to the devastating fire that broke out at the historic Hotel Marysville late last Saturday.
City officials held a press conference Friday to discuss where they're at with next steps after the fire. According to the fire chief, Hotel Marysville has been unoccupied since 1986. The building itself was built in 1926. With that, he says there haven't been upgrades and the fire suppression system is outdated.
For example, there were no active fire sprinklers or alarms, allowing the fire to get out of hand and ahead of the fire department.
Hotel Marysville is at risk of collapsing with little to no warning.
"We, the city council of Marysville, have formally declared an emergency thereby opening potential involvement by the Governor's Office of Emergency Services," Marysville Mayor Chris Branscum said.
The city has hired a demolition company to come out and assess the building on Monday, which is something that hasn't been able to be done to the full extent due to how unsafe the structure is.
"I'm glad the community is taking caution and we have to reroute because I'm afraid it might collapse," Marysville resident Gricel Oropeza said.
It might, which is something the city is trying to get ahead of. However, they're still in negotiations with the building's ownership over the fate of the building and how to move forward.
"It appears the insurance coverage on the building was minimal," Marysville City Manager Jim Schaad said.
We reached out to a representative for the building's ownership who said it's technically owned by Feather River Plaza LLC, but Urban Smart Growth is also involved.
"The city wants us to snap a finger, write a check and demolish the building tomorrow. I think that's unrealistic," said Dan Katz, counsel to the ownership of the building.
The hotel's ownership is calling the city's timeline impractical considering nobody has been able to get inside to do the full assessment.
"It requires further study in the investigation," Katz said. "We've had an initial report from a drone that says the building is unsafe. We need further studies that will take 6-8 weeks."
"We're still negotiating with them and discussing it with them," Schaad said. "The disagreement is who is responsible for the remediation and how quickly that can be done."
The hotel's ownership told CBS13 that they were planning to sell the building to Habitat For Humanity before the fire happened.
Now, they've offered to donate the building to Marysville so the city can do with it as they see fit, including demolishing it. But the city said it should be the responsibility of the private owners to step up.
As for road closures, the city says they could remain for weeks, if not longer.