Photo: Stag Hotel Starts to Rebuild

It's been nearly a year since a two-alarm fire ripped through a front corner of the Stag Hotel on West Beach Street, killing one man and leaving dozens of others homeless.

This month, crews are working to restore the low-income residential motel.

"We're finally beginning to rebuild. That's exciting," Russell Rickman said earlier this month. He managed the building and called one of its apartments home before the devastating blaze.

For all of Patch's coverage of the arson at the Stag Hotel, click HERE.

The April 30 fire injured 30 people and displaced about 20 others. Flames tore through the 75-year-old building, and some residents leaped from second-story windows to escape the fire.

A man deemed a "person of interest" in the arson investigation of the Stag Hotel fire died in June. There was a second man under investigation, but Watsonville police have not released updates on the case for months.

Some residents who lived in the Stag Hotel's rear apartments—a separate building—have been allowed to return home, but here's no word yet on when the main building will reopen.