It was a fire — not a big fire, but big enough to evacuate the Old Faithful Lodge on Saturday night in Yellowstone.
Rick Hoeninghausen, director of sales and marketing for Yellowstone National Park Lodges, said the fire of unknown örigin began around 7 p.m. in a storage facility near the laundry room in the basement of the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.
West Yellowstone firefighters were dispatched to the structure for a "mutual aid response," along with Yellowstone personnel to put out the small blaze, Hoeninghausen said.
The alarms went off and everyone was promptly evacuated, he said. About two hours later, visitors were allowed back in the building.
“The fire was in the basement and although I haven’t been inside that exact room, I suspect it’s got a lot of concrete,” he said, noting that the structure was built in 1999.
“There was plenty of fire suppression and stabilization and that kind of stuff,” he said. “The building is designed to work like it’s supposed to.”
Hoeninghausen said it was the last night of the season for guests as the lodge closed down for autumn after breakfast Sunday morning. The lodge will reopen Dec. 16 for the winter season.
The facility wasn’t at capacity as it was just days earlier as it hosted a major tourism conference there.
“Traditionally, on the last night, the number of guests at the lodge drops down quite a bit,” he said.
Hoeninghausen said an investigation into the the cause of the fire is underway, but he was unaware when results might be released.
Jimmy Orr can be reached at jimmy@cowboystatedaily.com.
