Emergency Services Chief says cause of Pincher Creek Hotel fire ‘undetermined’

Initially, firefighters were inside the building, but he said the heat build-up got so bad, that they had to evacuate to go on the defensive.

“Our objective from that point on was to protect the exposures, so that means pretty much all the buildings down-wind to the east on that block,” Cox told LNN.

He added that the major loss was contained to the King Edward and adjacent buildings did not suffer damage from the flames. Unfortunately, some of the buildings on the block did suffer water damage.

“There was water in the basements of several buildings in that block. All of that whole block is kind of on a gravel bed and [the] water we were putting on to that building [the King Edward] was just running into all the adjacent buildings into their basements,” Cox explained.

“Anybody that had a sump pump running didn’t sustain damage but people that didn’t have a sump pump running did sustain some damage.”

Everyone was evacuated safely, with no injuries reported. Cox said some firefighters sustained minor injuries, but nothing “reportable” or major.

CAUSE OF THE FIRE

Cox explained that investigators are fairly certain of where the fire started – the north-east corner of the building on the main floor – but the cause is not known and may not ever be known.

“The damage to it [the King Edward] was too extensive and they [investigators] couldn’t find any obvious cause. While we got a pretty good idea where it started, it will come off as undetermined [the cause], mostly because we just can’t find any particular item that failed,” he told LNN.

Pincher Creek Emergency Services continues to build a “fairly comprehensive file” on the incident, according to Cox.

He said if anyone in the community can provide the department with photos, that could help the case.

“It’ll just help us build out [a] picture of what happened,” he remarked.

TEAM EFFORT

Cox said the response to the fire was a total team effort, with multiple agencies involved.

“We had really good cooperation. We actually activated an emergency management agency to help coordinate this [response],” he said.

In all, Cox said staff from the Town of Pincher Creek, the M.D. of Pincher Creek, town bylaw officers, RCMP and local area conservation officers assisted in maintaining the scene on Saturday morning.

by Justin Goulet

Emergency Services Chief says cause of Pincher Creek Hotel fire ‘undetermined’

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