Update: Fire destroys historic hotel in North Augusta

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By Navideh Forghani nforghani@nbcaugusta.com

Story Published: Sep 5, 2008 at 9:26 AM EST

Story Updated: Sep 5, 2008 at 6:17 PM EST

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C.- Fire investigators are looking into how a fire started at the Palmetto House at Seven Gables on Georgia Avenue in North Augusta.

Dozens of firefighters were called out to battle flames just after 10 p.m. Thursday.

It looked like a burning inferno. Flames were blazing out the windows and through the rooftop, 100 feet into the air.

"I didn't think it was happening until the top fell," said Geri Walker, witness.

"I was standing in the front lawn. The heat got so great that I had to keep walking back. There were a couple of explosions when the gas line hit. It was intense," said David Leverett, witness.

Officials say the fire started in the back of the newly renovated restaurant, formally known as the Seven Gables Inn. It quickly moved to the rest of the building. The uncontrollable flames burning at the historic landmark is something many in North Augusta couldn't bare to watch.

''It’s terrifying watching dreams burn to the ground. It’s a part of North Augusta. You'd come around the corner and there it is or there it was," said Walker.

Palmetto House at Seven Gables was built in the early 1900s and experts say the material used is the reason it burned so quickly.

"It's made of fat lighter and a lot of varnish. It's a recipe for a good fire once it gets a good start on you,” said Chief Lee Wetherington, North Augusta Public Safety.

It's a fire that not only took a historic building, but also memories the people of North Augusta.

It was originally built as the Palmetto Lodge in 1903 and hosted the Rockefellers and Firestones. It was also the private home of adventure novelist Edison Marshall, the author of Yankee Pasha: The Adventures of Jason Starbuck.

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