A century-old hotel in downtown Vegreville is no more.
The Alberta Hotel lies in pieces Monday after a fire quickly spread through the old wood structure in the early morning hours.
Volunteer firefighters arrived at the building around 4 a.m. after a resident reported the blaze broke out on the second floor of the hotel.
About 20 people, many of whom called the hotel home, were evacuated shortly after the fire broke out. No injuries are being reported.
Vegreville resident Leonard Haven said the town will miss its last landmark hotel.
"Terrible, terrible," he said. "Another history building is gone."
The hotel, building in 1906 by F & K Hotel Holdings, also housed a liquor store and restaurant.
Other residents said the hotel was used as one of the remaining common places for people to meet and celebrate.
Christina Henderson said the town is growing suspicious after another well-known building went up in flames just a few months earlier.
In February 2008, the Vegreville Alliance Church burnt to the ground. Fire investigators have not yet determined the cause of that fire.
"They probably will start worrying and getting a little more suspicious about different people in town," Henderson said.
Fire crews tell CTV News the blaze began in the rear part of the second floor.
"Our main concern was getting all the residents of the building out," senior Capt. Phil Rowe said.
Firefighters were sent inside the building to battle the flames, but they were forced to quickly evacuate when the blaze spread to the roof.
After about two hours of battling the blaze, crews made the difficult decision to demolish what was left of the historic hotel.
It's remains now lay in a wet, charred pile on the building's site.
Rowe said the hotel wasn't worth risking the fire crews' lives to save it.
'That's our main concern, the safety of the firemen, safety of the tenants," he said. "Once everybody's out we say a building can be replaced, our guy's can't."
Hotel general manger Randy Norton said the fire destroyed almost everything he owned.
"I have a briefcase with my passport, my birth certificate, pictures of my parents, both of them are dead," he said.
While Norton copes with his losses, he says his tenants will probably be the ones hit hardest by the blaze.
"Nobody had insurance because they lived in here, it's just prohibitive," he said. "They have nothing, and no one walked out with anything."
Investigators have not yet named a cause.
With files from Bill Fortier
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