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Fire destroys hotel under construction in Ventura County

A massive fire tore through a hotel under construction in Camarillo Tuesday night, gutting the structure.
Ventura County Fire Department
A massive fire tore through a hotel under construction in Camarillo Tuesday night, gutting the structure.

Flames sweep through four story complex off of Highway 101 in Camarillo

Flames shot into the sky Tuesday night, stunning thousands of motorists driving by a huge fire in a hotel under construction off of Highway 101 in Ventura County.

The fire was reported just after 7 p.m. on East Ventura Boulevard in Camarillo, near the Highway 101/Las Posas Road interchange. The building was just off the southbound lanes of Highway 101.

Ventura County firefighters had to use hook and ladder trucks to reach the flames on the third and fourth floors of the building.

By 7:45 p.m., the flames had destroyed much of the structure. And, more than an hour after the blaze started, firefighters were still in a defensive stance against the fire, because of the intense flames from the burning wood framing, and plywood.

Later in the evening, southbound traffic was temporarily diverted off the freeway because of issues with power lines.

No injuries are reported. There's no word on the cause of the fire.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.