HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — When the historic Majestic Hotel caught fire on the night of February 27, 2014, Hot Springs Mayor Pat McCabe said the city was in the process of implementing new safety regulations for buildings with three or more floors.
Fast forward to now, McCabe hopes those changes and the historical preservation in place will prevent history from repeating itself.
"It was a bad night," McCabe said. "It was a very long night. It was going to burn for a while."
That's how McCabe remembers that night as putting out the flames took several hours, and cleaning the land took years.
"Unfortunately, the structures of that age had asbestos and lead-based paint," McCabe said. "It had to get a clearance from ADEQ for us even to move any of the rubble... that took five to six years."
Now, concrete and an "available for development" sign are all left.
To increase safety and possibly even slow the spread of fire, McCabe said the city introduced a shell ordinance in 2013 to establish the Thermal Basin Fire District to require buildings with three or more floors to have fire sprinkler systems.
"The details, the fine print of that, did not occur until 2014," McCabe said. "In all likelihood, it did not get signed and voted on until after the fire, but it was coming."
Hot Springs architect and business owner Anthony Taylor said he's seen firsthand how important historic preservation is for the other old nearby buildings.
Taylor has put a lot of work into Quapaw Baths on Bathhouse Row.
"We took a 1920s building, and we inserted a modern interpretation of the bathhouse in that," Taylor said. "Things like that worked out well."
Taylor said whatever is built on the old Majestic Hotel site will bring new life to Hot Springs. Additionally, he hopes to see the city invest and build new apartments, condos, or a water park.
"Hot Springs is a very vibrant place," Taylor added.
In the years since clearing the site, developers proposed building a new thermal water park and hotel, but a plan to build an amphitheater fell through.
At this point, a partnership from the Chamber of Commerce is looking for developers to build on the land.