Borealis

. . . has burned to the ground. This "Charming Inn of Alberta" was unique, full of antiques, and had an interesting dining room. It is no more.
It burned in January, no-one was hurt.
I discovered this accidentally while browsing travel sites on the web.

bob_brown

That is terrible. My son will be devastated! That was his choice of them all in the Glacier - Waterton area.

Tootsall

This is correct; the fire has apparently been blamed on spontaneous combustion(!) in the laundry room. The owner has said that he intends to rebuild but some of the antique furniture will be very difficult to replace. With the current economic climate I wonder how long it will take to complete (if ever).

My wife and I used to enjoy driving down for dinner in the evening at the Lamplight; we live about an hour away from Waterton.

bob_brown

If you Google Kilmorey Lodge Fire you will find several awesome pictures of the lodge ablaze. The cause of the fire is said to be as follows:
The Cardston fire department has done a thorough investigation and has determined that the cause of the blaze was spontaneous combustion. They have concluded that during the evening of Monday Jan. 20th a load of laundry was completed and folded while still warm and placed in a cloth tote bag. The combined heat generated in the bag was sufficient to start this laundry and tote bag on fire. The fire quickly spread to engage the entire wooden structure resulting in the destruction of the Kilmorey Lodge in Waterton Lakes National Park.

I asked a senior insurance claims adjuster and arson investigator what he thought of the cause of the blaze. He said that first we must remember that we are not necessarily talking about household laundry. There could well be dirty cleaning cloths from housekeeping and from the kitchen that contained various cleaning chemicals and cooking grease. Despite being washed, the cleaning cloths would contain some volatile residue.

If folded and placed in an enclosed container, the warm laundry could easily continue to gain heat until the flash point was reached.

Regardless of the cause, the Kilmored is in ruins and rebuilding it will take a long time.

Tootsall

The Kilmorey recently released a rendering of their proposal for the rebuild. Looks like it's going ahead in spite of the current economic situation.

cmcfong

Tootsall, can you recommend any other properties in Waterton? We stayed at Prince of Wales on our last visit and intended to stay at Kilmorey for the next one.
Is there a link you can give for the proposal for the rebuild?
Thank you.

Tootsall

You are in luck! I saw the original article in either a Calgary or Edmonton newspaper a week or so back. The sketch seemed to indicate that the hotel would look about the same but be 1 story higher. However, since you raised the question I checked out their website and "voila!". http://www.thekilmoreylodge.com/. Personally I think the challenge will be for them to find furnishings for the rooms: the original furnishings were almost all antiques gleaned from old farm estate sales etc. over the years so each room had a rather eclectic decor. In the meantime, the "Waterton Lakes Lodge" is owned and operated by the same people as the Kilmorey and is right across the street from the Kilmorey location.

While I've never stayed over in the hotels at Waterton (we live just over a one-hour drive from the park), I can recommend you to the website http://www.discoverwaterton.com/ . It has a few listings (as you are aware, Waterton townsite is not overly-large!)

Enjoy your visit!

cmcfong

Thank you so much, Tootsall. It does look lovely. I will check out the Waterton Lakes Lodge and the website for waterton. You have been most helpful.