BOONSBORO-- --The crumbling limestone hotel at the center of this 18th-century Western Maryland town was to be the heart of its revival, a return to glory at the hands of a 21st-century romance novelist.
But an early morning accident at the Boone Hotel sparked an explosive blaze, leaving a smoldering hole in the town's historic Main Street and destroying writer Nora Roberts' plans to reopen a bed and breakfast there this summer.
"My family and I are stunned and heartbroken by the devastation of the fire," Roberts said in an e-mail to The Sun. "We're grieving, too, for the other buildings damaged and involved, and deeply concerned for the families who were displaced. But through all that, we're thankful and relieved no one was hurt."
Several families were displaced by the four-alarm blaze, which firefighters worked for nearly two hours to control on a foggy, gloomy morning. And the efforts to revive this small downtown - many of the projects thanks to Roberts and her family - were set back.
Yesterday's fire all but destroyed the hotel. The facade of one of the buildings across the street nearly melted off. Shattered glass littered the sidewalks after firefighters broke some windows to vent the buildings. Half of the white brick building next to the hotel was incinerated.
"It looks like a bomb hit," Boonsboro Mayor Charles F. "Skip" Kauffman said as electrical crews worked to restore power to the town. "The fact that there was not a loss of life is an absolute miracle."
Deputy State Fire Marshal Ed Ernst said that a construction worker carrying wooden trim in subfreezing morning temperatures tripped over a hose connecting a propane tank to a heater inside the hotel, causing the 100-pound tank to tip over and leak. The heater ignited the propane and unleashed the blaze, he said.
The Boone Hotel, which was built of limestone and heavy wood beams, was severely damaged, along with at least two adjacent buildings, which housed a bakery and a Subway restaurant.
On the same block sit a library and the town hall, which were not damaged. At the sound of the first alarms, the mayor, his wife and neighbors ran to the town hall to remove valuable papers and computers.
The fire was reported about 7:45 a.m., said Capt. Keith Abrecht of the Boonsboro Volunteer Fire Department, whose station is behind the hotel.
"This is the largest fire that this little fire department has ever encountered," said Abrecht, whose department has about 35 active members.
At least two families were displaced by the fire and are being cared for by the Washington County Red Cross, Abrecht said.
Susan Brubaker said she was at work at Classic Fuels, a gas station and convenience store, when a co-worker called to tell her that she needed to go home because her one-bedroom apartment was on fire.
"I lost everything," Brubaker said as a Red Cross volunteer consoled her at the town's community center. "The pictures, my past, my parents' stuff."
"That lamp of Mom's I have, you can have it," offered Jeanie Sechler, her sister.
Frederick County, as well as Jefferson County, W.Va., and Loudoun County, Va., were called upon to help fight the blaze - for a total of 130 firefighters, Abrecht said.
Jim Massey, a 50-year-old retired Army veteran who lives directly across the narrow street from the hotel, said he first heard shouting, followed by propane tank explosions and what sounded like rounds of gunfire. He said he suspected it was a nail gun discharging.
"I heard the workers telling each other, 'Get out! Get out!'" Massey said. "I could see the fire through a hole in the blue tarp on the scaffolding. And the fire just takes off. We got our coats and got out of here."
Boonsboro, a town of about 3,200, was founded in 1792 by cousins of Daniel Boone and is about midway between Frederick and Hagerstown.
Roberts, 57, and her second husband, Bruce Wilder, bought the long-vacant and dilapidated Boone Hotel in 2006 and planned to reopen it this summer. They opened a bookstore cafe, called Turn the Page, in 1995. Wilder runs the bookstore.
The author's spokeswoman, Laura Reeth, said that Roberts was "in shock" and "heartsick" but that she would go ahead with a book-signing scheduled today at Turn the Page.
The entire intersection of Main and St. Paul streets has been touched by Roberts. She has either acquired or is in the process of acquiring a red brick building at the northeast corner of the intersection, Kauffman said. On the southeast corner is the site of the former U.S. Hotel, which Roberts also owns.
It is now Vesta Pizzeria, owned by Roberts' son, Dan Aufdem-Brinke. His former restaurant, Asaro's, burned down in January 2007, and the family replaced it in October with Vesta.
Before Roberts bought it, the Boone Hotel had become an eyesore, with a sagging porch and crumbling limestone.
"We were all so thrilled with what she has been doing because the hotel sat empty for so long," said Sherrie Ellsworth, 45, whose grandfather was once mayor of Boonsboro. "Someone was finally doing something with it. It was in such bad shape that trees were growing out of the side of it."
Nonetheless, Roberts expressed optimism about the fate of the old hotel.
"For us now, the next step is: How do we fix it?" she wrote. "As soon as it's possible, the structural engineer will assess the integrity of the stone that still stands, then we'll go from there. We'll start doing what comes next."
melissa.harris@baltsun.com nick.madigan@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Jean Marbella contributed to this article.