DeLAND, Fla. – Firefighters returned Monday to investigate what caused the vacant Putnam Hotel in DeLand to go up in flames Sunday night.
Nearby residents, like Harrison Chandler, also wanted to see what the vacant, and burned, building looked like in the daylight.
"There were fire trucks everywhere, there were sirens and I said, 'Wow! What happened?'" said Chandler.
Every single floor of the Putnam Hotel at 225 W. New York Ave. has smoke and water damage, Fire Chief Dan Hanes said.
It will take a few days before investigators know what caused the fire. Thirty-seven firefighters and 16 fire units from multiple agencies battled the blaze for hours.
"What made the fire difficult to fight was that it gained such a significant headway on us, before we were able to make an aggressive interior," Hanes said.
Firefighters spent the morning putting out smoldering spots on the first floor of the hotel and made sure the six-story building is structurally safe before going inside to investigate the fire, which they're calling suspicious.
"They're taking samples, they're going to bring in some of their arson dogs to sniff the area to see if there was any accelerant used. We need to rule out all of these things before we can narrow it down to a cause," Hanes said.
Former employees stopped by Monday to see the historic hotel. Guy Lakeway remembers the building in better days when he worked as a dishwasher there in the 1980s.
"It's kind of hard for me to actually see how a building like this could be damaged. I hope the new owners can have faith to actually bring it back to its glory days," Lakeway said.
The hotel, built in 1880, has a previous history with fire. After being renamed the Putnam Hotel in 1921, the building was destroyed by a fire, reports The Daytona Beach News-Journal. It later reopened as Florida's first fireproof hotel, the Journal reports.
News 6 spoke with the newest owner of the Putnam Hotel, Mohamed Rashad, who arrived to inspect his building. It's been vacant since 2011.
"It's really sad. I figured people would want to cherish a building like that in their own town," Rashad said. "I fell in love with the building when I saw it first. I've been pursuing the building for like a year until I bought it last month."
Rashad and demolition crews have been working on the hotel for the last three weeks and said the fire is just a minor setback. He has big visions for Putnam Hotel and expects it to be up and running within the next two years.
"My vision is a hybrid hotel and apartments. Still figuring out, talking to different people on the first floor, whether the Museum of Arts would want to move in down there or it could be totally residential," he said. "I'm very stubborn. You know, this is a setback, yes, but we'll get through it."
The State Fire Marshal's Office is leading the investigation with the help of the DeLand Fire Department.