After a few false starts and days of inclement weather, the front wall of the St. Francis Hotel finally came down last week. Justin Wight, the owner of the burned out hotel, brought a structural engineer to Susanville who declared the wall could be saved — an important part of Wight’s plan to restore the historic hotel, despite it looking like it would be more at home in Gaza than on Main Street in Susanville. The city brought the wall down because it believed the allegedly unstable structure posed a threat to public safety.
Four firefighters, two helicopter pilots and a contractor bulldozing a fireline have died in Colorado, Utah and Oregon this year. Fast-moving fires have burned…
