Fire guts bed and breakfast in Ste. Genevieve

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. (AP) -- A popular downtown bed and breakfast, said to be the oldest in the state, has been lost to fire.

Firefighters early Thursday fought through the icy weather to control the raging fire at the Inn St. Gemme Beauvais bed and breakfast. It was housed in a building built in 1848.

"Icicles were forming on the ladders and the ice on the ground made conditions really slippery," Ste. Genevieve Detective Joseph DiMercurio told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It took several hours to get the fire under control."

No one was injured in the blaze. But it appears that the building was a total loss.

The fire was contained to just that building, located at Jefferson and Main streets where structures are closely spaced.

"It didn't catch to any other building," DiMercurio said.

The Inn St. Gemme Beauvais is said to be the oldest bed and breakfast in Missouri. The building was first built as a home for Felix Rozier. It was a three-story brick colonial mansion.

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Information from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com