A blaze early Thursday heavily damaged a portion of the historic El Rancho Motel complex in downtown Barstow, Calif., along old Route 66, reported the Desert Dispatch.
The newspaper said the fire destroyed the Cedar Restaurant and Travel Store — formerly known as El Rancho Restaurant — at the complex. A fire chief said the blaze started in the attic when the building was unoccupied.
Residents of the El Rancho Motel behind the restaurant weren’t notified about the fire until 2 a.m.
“A cop woke me up and told me to get out of my room,” William Snider, said. “ I didn’t have any idea what was going on, I just did what I was told.” […]
In the past different parts of the historical structure have caught fire. The El Rancho Motel caught fire once in 2005 and again in 2006, causing an electrical power failure and an injury to a firefighter.
Good photos of the El Rancho Motel from 2006 can be seen at The Lope’s blog here.