SANTA CRUZ >> Investigators believe a fire that broke out early Saturday morning in a hotel elevator was intentionally set, a Santa Cruz Fire Department official said.

A fire alarm on the 100 block of Ocean Street was triggered shortly before 1 a.m. for the three-story business. In a media release from Santa Cruz Fire’s Battalion Chief Josh Coleman, the hotel’s manager alerted arriving firefighters that the fire appeared to have originated in the elevator shaft and that someone may have been trapped inside, according to the release.

Some 40 firefighters from three fire agencies, including Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Central Fire, evacuated the hotel, forced entry into the elevator car and extinguished the fire within 15 minutes of arrival. No one was inside but the elevator was damaged to an estimated $100,000, according to Coleman. There were not injuries due to the fire.

While the fire was not initially considered suspicious, investigators later determined with the help of security video that an individual had entered the elevator, piled cardboard and debris inside the car and lit the pile with a lighter, Santa Cruz Fire Deputy Marshal Dave Graff said Monday.

“The person in the elevator happened to be the one that lit the fire,” Graff said of the individual who departed the area ahead of firefighters’ arrival.

Anyone with information related to the fire’s cause is asked to contact the Santa Cruz Police Department’s non-emergency number at 831-471-1131.