By Kellah Lavoie

Hotel fire a shock for town

Feb 20, 2011 | 2:06 PM

The village of Choiceland is trying to get back to normal.

They lost their hotel yesterday. The Choiceland Hotel went up in flames at around 1:30 p.m. and by 5 p.m. it was nothing but a pile of rubble and smoke.

Edna Dickson, Choiceland mayor, said there were no injuries and volunteer fire departments from Smeaton and White Fox came to help fire the blaze.

“The volunteer firefighters did an amazing job, salvaging or making sure the adjoining business, the town café and variety store were saved,” she said.

Dickson said the fire was first noticed by the owner, Carol McCallum, and manager of the hotel, her son.

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She said the two noticed a smell and went to go explore it.

“As the smell got more distinct they went looking for it and the smoke started so they had to get out of the building, they ran next door to the café. The café was open for business, people were in there finishing up lunch, so they notified the café owner to get everybody out,” she said.

Dickson added that the café had some fire fighters in it at the time and other patrons helped haul out artwork and some of the freezers in case the fire jumped buildings.

By the time the café was emptied, the entire hotel was engulfed in flames.

Dickson explained the hotel was a landmark in Choiceland. It was built in 1936 by local craftsmen with local lumber. It has been owned by many different over the years.

Since it was wood-framed, it did not take long to be completely destroyed.

Firefighters worked late into the night making sure the hotspots were out and the fire didn’t spark back up.

“Needless to say at -37 C last night, we had some pretty frozen people, pretty cold, wet firemen.”

The mayor has since talked to McCallum.

Dickson said she is having trouble taking it all in. To make matters worse, it was her birthday yesterday.

“It wasn’t a very good birthday present,” she said.

Now they have to wait.

“Because Monday is a holiday, nothing can really get going until Tuesday with insurance and inspectors and getting a hold of them,” she said.

Dickson called it a shocking day.

She said McCallum plans to stay in Choiceland and open a new business.

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Up in smoke

klavoie@panow.com