THE Sea Lake Hotel was gutted following an early morning blaze which has been deemed suspicious.
CFA crews were called to the Best Street hotel around 12.30am and arrived to find the building completely engulfed in flames.
CFA Operations Officer for District 18, Mick Sporton, said the fire had completely gutted the hotel.
The fire caused significant structural damage, which caused part of the historic building to collapse.
“When units arrived the fire was coming out of every door and window,” Mr Sporton said.
“The brigade went into asset protection, protecting the surrounding buildings as well as trying to extinguish the fire within the building itself.
“It was too dangerous to get firefighters to go inside, they did an external fire attack and tried to get it from the outside.”
More than 20 firefighters from Sea Lake and Berriwillock helped extinguish the fire.
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