The El Dorado Hotel at the corner of First Street West and Spain streets.
Ryan lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
At about 8 a.m. Tuesday, a fire erupted in the flue of a pizza oven on the ground floor of the El Dorado Hotel. Employees were warming the wood-burning brick oven when smoke shot up to the top vent, according to assistant manager James Dick. The fire had reportedly reached the roof, and officials called for a second alarm to call in additional firefighters.
“The fire department came and put out the fire, and it was all done by 9:15 or 9:30,” said Dick, who suspected that some chemicals used to clean the oven last week had remained in the flue and ignited the blaze at El Dorado Kitchen, the restaurant on the corner of First Street West and West Spain Street.
The only damage sustained in the fire was the melting of an exhaust fan on the roof used to draw smoke from the pizza oven, Dick said. There was no damage to the historic hotel itself.
The two-story adobe structure, which was built circa 1840 by Salvador Vallejo, brother of General Mariano Vallejo, is designated as California Landmark 501.
