Desert Sands Motel catches fire again

Desert Sands Motel in 2013, Thomas Hawk

Albuquerque firefighters on Sunday responded to a second fire in 40 days at the now-closed Desert Sands Motel along the city’s Route 66 corridor.

A passerby alerted the fire department about 3 p.m. after seeing a fire burning in the back of the motel, KOAT-TV reported. Just one unit burned before firefighters brought the blaze under control.

“That got us here in a timely manner,” Battalion Cmdr. Bob Hartley said. “If that would have gone on and got going on us, if it had been another 10, 15 minutes before we got called, that fire would have been going pretty good and got up in that floor underneath that second floor.”

KRQE-TV reported evidence that a homeless person started the fire by gaining access through the unit’s bathroom window.

Officials say after the last fire there in May, the building was boarded up extremely well to keep people out. That means firefighters had a hard time getting in too.

“We had to work our way through the plywood that the owner had put up, which was done in a very good manner, so it took us a while to get into it, except the backside where we assume the homeless person got inside,” said AFD Commander Bob Hartley.

Fire destroyed two-thirds of the Desert Sands Motel on May 24, hospitalized two people, displaced dozens of residents and caused about $1.5 million in damage.

Police charged Jennifer Maestas, 27, with setting the original fire. Investigators said surveillance video captured Maestas leaving the Desert Sands Motel room where the fire started. Footage also revealed she walked through the parking lot as the flames spread. She remains in jail. She pleaded not guilty in late June.

According to varying online accounts, the Desert Sands was built in 1957. But it declined into a ramshackle place — yet another victim of an oversupply of old motels along Central Avenue.

The Academy Award-winning film “No Country for Old Men” used the Desert Sands Motel in a critical scene. More about the scene may be found here.

The city likely will bulldoze what’s left if the owner doesn’t rebuild.

(Image of the Desert Sands Motel sign in 2013 by Thomas Hawk via Flickr)

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