To view a video of the remains of Salt Wells Villa, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=GucpYeO9KvM



An investigation is underway to determine if a fire early Sunday morning that destroyed Salt Wells Villa, a brothel 15 miles east of town, was deliberately set.

"There was not an immediate indication of what caused the fire. We are approaching it as if it was intentionally set until it is proven otherwise," Churchill County Sheriff Richard Ingram said Monday.

A chimney in the bar area and a storage shed are the sole remaining structures amid piles of charred rubble that was once an operating brothel in Churchill County licensed to employ six prostitutes. The heat from the blaze melted a plastic sign that once announced "Girls, Girls Girls" to draw customers in from a remote stretch of Highway 50.

A man who was driving by the shuttered brothel saw flames and called the sheriff's office at 5:06 a.m. Ingram said the man gave his name and telephone number and is not suspected of causing the fire.

As deputies responded, they did not see any vehicles coming into Fallon from the east, and no one was near the fire when authorities arrived, Ingram said.

NAS Fallon fire crews were the first to arrive at 5:23 a.m. when they found the main building fully engulfed in flames and fire spreading into adjoining buildings.

Kurt Henning, first assistant fire chief of the Fallon-Churchill Volunteer Fire Department, said firefighters could only save part of a pump house and another exterior building at the far southern end of the property.

Part of the brothel was constructed with old, single-wide mobile homes that were divided into separate rooms where the prostitutes worked when the business was open. Frames on wheels are littered with blackened bedsprings and other debris.

Henning said it is difficult to save mobile homes from total destruction.

"Old mobile homes burn fast because they were built when the fire codes were different than they are now," he said. "We lost the entire structure. The only thing left are the trailer frames.

The fire is suspicious because there was no electricity running to the buildings. Salt Wells used a generator to supply power before it closed in 2004.

"It certainly is suspicious in nature," Henning said about the fire.

Firefighters remained at the scene until 11 a.m. to extinguish the inferno. They returned on Sunday afternoon to put out hot spots that had flared up.

The volunteer fire department sent two large engines and two smaller engines to the fire. Two water tanker trucks were also utilized. The NAS Fallon Federal Fire Department assisted with one engine.

Because of the magnitude of the blaze, Henning called all remaining firefighters to stand by at the station in case they were needed for another call.

"I call for that whenever we have a large fire that far out of town," said Henning. "Our concern is having all that manpower so far out of town. We want to make sure we have a good crew and make sure the town is covered."

In 1974, Churchill County voters decided to allow legal prostitution outside the city limits. Salt Wells Villa and Lazy B, another abandoned brothel that is closer to town, opened and operated for years.

Salt Wells lapsed into serious trouble in 2003 when it was shut down by the Nevada State Health Department because there was insufficient potable water on the premises. Other building code violations were also found.

The owner's operating license was revoked in 2004 after deputies found a manager had died and the business was abandoned.

That same year, a group of Fallon residents gained enough signatures to place a measure on the ballot that would have repealed legal prostitution in the county. Voters rejected the ban by a 2-1 margin in the November 2004 general election.

According to Churchill County Recorder's Office records, the property is owned by Tia Maria Torres in Canyon Country, Calif. It was formerly owned by Reno insurance agent R. Scott Rottman.