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Going, going, gone
Twisted conduit, charred beams, sheets of drywall, iron pipes and pink bats of insulation are all that is left of the old Enloe Hospital building on Flume Street as a backhoe fills a truck to haul the debris away this week. The building was destroyed beyond restoration two years ago when a faulty porcelain electrical insulator failed and sparked a blaze in the basement of the 90-year-old building, leaving four apartment tenants and three businesses homeless. The building, constructed in 1913 as the first home of Enloe Hosptial, was owned by Roy Ellis when the fire erupted. Ellis let it sit for about a year pretty much as the gutted shell firefighters had left it. Ellis sold it to master renovator Wayne Cook who initially planned to restore the building to its former glory. But Cook’s time and money was being absorbed by his remodeling of the Hotel Diamond in downtown Chico. So Cook sold it to Pat Orr, who decided to tear it down.