Fire Destroys Beaumont Hotel a Month Before Its Opening

By Ryan Myers, The Beaumont Enterprise

Extensive damage will make it difficult to determine what caused a Beaumont hotel, scheduled for completion next month, to burn down Thursday, fire investigators said.

The fire at the 131-unit Value Place hotel near the intersection of Interstate 10 and Washington Boulevard was reported about 6:08 a.m. Firefighters said they do not know when it started.

“The fire had tremendous headway when we arrived,” District Chief Jeff McNeel said.

“The fire is not labeled as suspicious, just as undetermined, but we will not be able to look much at the structure itself for typical things like burn patterns and do things we normally would in an investigation.”

Instead, investigators will turn to interviews with witnesses and the hotel’s construction crew. Earl Sample, superintendent on the Bell-Corley Construction project, said 20 to 40 workers were at the job site daily.

The extended-stay hotel was one of eight Beaumont hotels scheduled for completion next year. Stephanie Molina, spokeswoman with the Beaumont Convention and Visitors Bureau, said losing the property will hinder the city’s plans to expand capacity for workers and convention visitors.

Flames, McNeel said, can move more quickly through incomplete structures without features such as doors and Sheetrock, both of which can slow a fire’s spread. The fire might have been reported sooner if the building was occupied, he said.

Eight fire trucks responded to the two-alarm blaze behind the MCM Eleganté, where firefighters worked for almost nine hours Thursday. Two reserve fire trucks were activated to shore up resources sapped fighting the hotel fire. No injuries were reported.