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Best-selling novelist Nora Roberts says the fire that destroyed the hotel she owns in downtown Boonsboro was "horrific," and says it is devastating for her and her husband, the town and the other properties that were damaged.



Deputy State Fire Marshal Joseph Zurolo says the fire started around 7:30 a.m. in the 2½-story Boone Hotel, owned by Roberts and her husband, Bruce Wilder. Zurolo says the blaze then spread to two other buildings, causing an estimated $1.5 million in damage.

No one was injured.
Roberts and Wilder bought the six-room hotel last year. Theywere renovating it and planned to open it this summer as an inn,with each room reflecting a different romantic literary theme.
Wilder says the other buildings damaged were a sandwich shop anda building containing a closed bakery and some upstairs apartments.
Zurolo says the cause of the fire is under investigation, butWilder says he was told by workers at the hotel that it startedwhen a propane tank they were using to fuel a heater fell over andexploded.
He says the hotel there is nothing left but the stone from theoriginal building and some of the brick wall.

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Washington County Emergency Services says 37 firefighting units from three states were battling the blaze.

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