COEUR d’ALENE — Law enforcement on Monday formally asked the public to help detectives identify the person who started the July fire that gutted the Garden Motel.

No one was injured in the July 14 blaze that sent plumes of sooty black and gray smoke into a blue summer sky along Northwest Boulevard in Coeur d’Alene, but police and fire investigators are certain the fire was human caused.

Coeur d’Alene police said via Crime Stoppers, a civilian organization that promotes public safety, that a cash reward is being offered for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person or people responsible for burning the old motel, which was unoccupied but known as a place where the homeless or transients sometimes camped.

Coeur d’Alene fire and police responded to the blaze at 8:30 a.m. at 1808 Northwest Blvd.

Tips so far have not led to the perpetrator.

“We’re pretty confident in what general area it started,” said Craig Etherton of the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department. “We’re in a pretty small area.”

The fire charred a large portion of the motel, which was no longer served with electricity or gas.

The motel closed in 2016 when its owner, Ron Ayers, who purchased the property in 2002, aspired to lure a Fairfield Marriott hotel to the property. Ayers is confident the plan to build a $14 million, 113-room Marriott Fairfield Inn at the site, as well as a 22 multi-family structure east of the motel site, will still reach fruition.

The Garden was built in the early 1950s and an addition was constructed in 1976, Ayers said.

More than 30 firefighters spent nearly six hours knocking out the blaze. After a four-day on-sight investigation, fire investigators and detectives turned over the scene to the property owner, Etherton said.

The public is urged to call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-222-TIPS, or go to www.p3tips.com. Tipsters do not have to give their name to collect the cash reward. Crime Stoppers of the Inland Northwest is a civilian organization that promotes public safety by paying cash rewards for information that solves crimes. It is not affiliated with law enforcement. Full disclosure of reward requirements is available at http://www.crimestoppers inlandnorthwest.org.

The county’s assessed value of the motel before the fire was $152,794, and the land value was assessed at $394,434.

Ayers said he secured demolition permits for several structures at the motel, planning to raze the buildings to make way for the motel project.