Carmangay Grange Hotel fire - photo credit to Carmangay Historical Society

By Justin Goulet

A sad day for Carmangay: Fire Chief mourns loss of historic Grange Hotel

Mar 29, 2021 | 11:18 AM

CARMANGAY, AB – The community of Carmangay is reeling from the effects of not only Sunday’s large grass fires, but a blaze that destroyed a beloved landmark.

At around 1 a.m. Sunday morning, March 29, the Carmangay Fire Department was alerted to a structure fire at the Grange Hotel in the village.

District Fire Chief Sue Dahl told Lethbridge News Now that when the department showed up, there was “just a little bit of smoke showing”, as well as some visible flames on the east end of the building.

Unfortunately, Dahl said her team had to wait to tackle the blaze.

“We didn’t have enough personnel that showed up for the initial response, that we were able to go in, so we had to wait for more personnel to show up and by the time we had enough people to go in, we sent in some people and they were only in for a very short time, and by then, the fire breached the roof and we had to call them back out,” she said.

Nighttime construction on Hwy 3 in Lethbridge starts April 17

Apr 17, 2025

SASHA launches #BuyABed fundraiser to support vulnerable Lethbridge residents

Apr 04, 2025

$20K grants available: TELUS STORYHIVE Pan-Asian Edition opens applications April 1

Mar 18, 2025

“Once it breached the roof, it was a lost cause. We had to just basically protect the exposures, the buildings around it. We saved all the buildings around it, but the Grange itself burned to the ground.”

READ MORE: Carmangay community loses historic hotel in early morning fire

The Carmangay Fire Department initially received assistance from crews in Champion, Vulcan and Barons.

Picture Butte Fire, as well as departments in Granum, Claresholm, Lomond and Vulcan County were called in for water trucks, as Carmangay did not have enough supply for what was needed to take down the flames.

On the bright side, there were no injuries reported.

However, Dahl said the community is in mourning of the historic Grange Hotel.

“It is such a sad day for Carmangay like that. That building was such a fixture. It was the end of the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It’s going to be missed, for sure,” she told LNN.

As for a cause, Dahl said that’s still under investigation, but we may never know the cause of the fire.

“The cause of the Grange is still under investigation and I don’t know if it will be [determined]. There’s damage beyond damage.”

The Carmangay Fire Department issued a thank you to the community on social media.

WILDFIRES

Not only did the community deal with the loss of such a special site, but residents were forced to evacuate due to large grass fires later in the day.

“We finished at the Grange and we were back at our hall cleaning up, and basically hadn’t even finished cleaning up and we were called to assist Claresholm with [the wildfire],” Dahl said.

“We sent units back [out] and we had one truck out there and then a second rapid unit went out. Our tender went out and then our rapid unit went out. It was crazy busy.”

READ MORE: Carmangay and Claresholm residents return home following Sunday wildfires

Evacuated residents in Carmangay were allowed back into their homes later on Sunday night.

For local news delivered daily to your email inbox, subscribe for free to the Lethbridge News Now newsletter here. You can also download the Lethbridge News Now mobile app in the Google Play and the Apple App Stores.