Firefighters battle blaze at former Clarion Hotel

A fire at the former Clarion Hotel on Reynolds Road gutted four floors of the building, which is set for demolition.

A fire that broke out today at the closed Clarion Hotel was started by someone who was inside the building that has been slated for demolition, according to fire officials.

PHOTO GALLERY: Clarion Hotel fire

Streets near the hotel on South Reynolds Road were temporarily closed as firefighters worked to put out the fire that started about 11:40 a.m. in a fourth-floor utility room and spread to the three floors above. By 12:10 p.m. the fire had been mostly extinguished, but sections of the building continued to smolder for another couple hours.

According to the Toledo Fire Department, the fire was started by an unknown person in the building. Vagrants often enter the building, and file cabinets filled with old papers provided ample material for the flames, according to the fire department..

The blaze burned a conspicuous hole in the fiber-glass and plywood sheathing at the back-left of the building.

Battalion Chief Tim Clapp said that all the copper fittings had been stolen from the building pipe to which the fire hose would usually be connected, which necessitated that the crew use a standpipe connected to its own ladder.

Soon after 1 p.m., firefighters began to cast smoking material through the building‘s broken windows. Charred purple, orange, and white papers littered the ground, alongside an old cabinet and glass shards, as they worked to prevent the fire from rekindling.

-- Maya Averbuch