A day after an early morning fire leveled the historical Bush House Hotel in Bellefonte Wednesday, fire officials said it will take at least a week before the smoldering pile of debris is extinguished.

"There's still a lot of smoke coming from the debris, and there are still small flare-ups," Bellefonte Police Chief Shawn Weaver said yesterday. "It's going to take a while."

Weaver said clean-up crews were working yesterday to knock down what little remained of the structure, built in 1868 and located in the heart of downtown Bellefonte. Once the structure is secured -- which Alpha Fire Company Captain Andrew Prestia said will most likely take more than a week -- investigators can begin to inspect the site for signs of what caused the fire.

Bellefonte Fire Chief Tim Knisely said Wednesday that he suspects electrical wiring might have caused the fire, but it's too early to know for sure.

The smoke billowing into the sky Wednesday that penetrated the air for miles around and smelled like a giant bonfire continued to slowly roll through the town yesterday. Fire companies are monitoring the heap of mangled brick, wood and ash around the clock, Weaver said.

Clean-up crews included officials from the State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), who checked nearby Spring Creek for pollution from the ash. The creek snakes through Bellefonte and rubs up against the base of the hotel, making it vulnerable to dirty water runoff and falling debris.

But Dan Spadoni, north-central region spokesman for DEP, said he surveyed the scene and saw minor debris but no contamination on the surface of the creek.

Becky Dunlap, a water resources coordinator for the ClearWater Conservancy in State College, said there was potential for the fire to create an ecological imbalance due to increased sediment -- namely, the ash -- falling into the water. However, she said it depended on the amount of ash and debris that fell in.

As residents watched the hotel burn to the ground Wednesday, more than 20 fire companies and 150 firefighters worked throughout the day and night to control the blaze. There were no guests staying over the night before the fire, Weaver said.

The building was not equipped with a fire alarm or sprinkler system, and Knisely said it may have been smoldering for up to an hour before anyone was alerted at about 7 a.m. Wednesday.