Westport woke up Friday bereft of a longtime landmark following a devastating fire that leveled the Harbor Resort.

The structure was built in 1962, said owner Sherry Sells, and its loss will be felt keenly. Fire immolated the two-story store and hotel, as well as destroying a vehicle and trailer next to the building.

“It was a historical building. I loved it and it was special to a lot of people. It’s really sad,” Sells said in a phone interview. “I’m just thankful nobody got hurt. That would have been really traumatic.”

The first indications of a fire were when a person staying there was awoken by a smoke detector at around 2:40 a.m. Friday morning, said South Beach Regional Fire Authority Capt. Keith Zelepuza in an interview. That smoke detector alerted the four guests and staff present in enough time to escape without injury, Zelepuza said.

Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World A trailer and a vehicle were also destroyed by the blaze that consumed the Harbor Resort on Friday, Nov. 4.

High winds, hot flames

“At 2:48, the first engine was enroute and arrived on-scene at 2:52,” Zelepuza said. “We’re really fortunate there was a fire hydrant about 150 feet away.”

Extremely high winds from the southwest were fanning the flames, Zelepuza said.

“The big thing is the wind affects fire travel,” Zelepuza said. “The winds made it very aggressive and it moved very rapidly.”

The high winds spread the fire, Zelepuza said.

“This was feeding fast,” Zelepuza said. “The high heat and high winds and the proximity of the Jeep to the building caught it on fire.”

The intensity of the fire meant firefighters were unable to enter the wooden structure, Zelepuza said.

“It was a complete defensive fire from the beginning. There was no offense,” Zelepuza said. “The fire was so intense and so hot that it burned through the supports holding up the second floor. At 3:14, it collapsed.”

With the loss of the first floor, efforts to suppress the fire, augmented by another engine and by the South Beach RFA’s ladder truck, were able to make advances, Zelepuza said. Firefighters were rapidly able to extinguish the trailer and Jeep fires.

“After the collapse had occurred, the fire came down in intensity,” Zelepuza said. “It became more manageable to protect the exposures.”

As holes burned through the roof, the department’s ladder truck was able to get water on the remaining hotspots, Zelepuza. The fire department cleared the scene just after 11 a.m., Zelepuza said.

The cause is still unknown, but a number of factors contributed to the size, including the age of the structure, the high winds, and the lateness of the hour, which meant the fire could become established before anyone was awake to call it in, Zelepuza said.

“Time of day. It gives that fire time to grow,” Zelepuza said. “It’s unusual to have that large of a structure and environment and Mother Nature come together.”

Zelepuza emphasized the role of the smoke detector in preventing a larger tragedy.

“The smoke detector is what woke these people up in the middle of the night and they all got out safely,” Zelepuza said. “The older your building, the more you should have it up to code with some sort of fire suppression system adapted to it.”

Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World A fire in the early morning of Friday, Nov. 4 destroyed the Harbor Resort in Westport.

What’s next?

Sells said she’s working through the recovery and insurance process as they plan toward the rebuild.

“First I have to get through all the insurance, all the utilities and all that,” Sells said. “There’s an inspector working there. I have no idea what the cause was.”

The extent of the damage made establishing a specific cause impossible, Zelepuza said, save that it was likely not weather related.

“The only thing I can tell you definitely is that it started on the first floor against the south wall,” Zelepuza said.

Sells said she bought the building a year ago, taking over the loan payments from the previous owner.

“A lot of people had very special memories from staying there 30 years ago, 20 years ago,” Sells said. “I was working on remodeling one room at a time.”

Fishing, crabbing and watching the sea were all big draws for the building, Sells said.

“It was really fun, and I love the water,” Sells said. “We were able to watch the whales spouting out there and the sea life. People could crab behind the motel.”

Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com.