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UPDATED: Fire breaks out in Banff Caribou Lodge

“It took about 30 minutes to actually bring the fire under control and then we were there all night monitoring."

BANFF – Disaster was averted with the quick response time and skills of the Banff Fire Department by preventing a blaze at Banff Caribou Lodge in the early hours of Monday morning from spreading throughout the hotel.

About 80 people were evacuated from the Banff Avenue hotel at about 3:30 a.m. on Monday (Oct 31) when a fire broke out in an unoccupied two-level suite covering the third and fourth floors.

“The fire department did an amazing job. They contained it to one single unit, which is incredible,” said Shawn Birch, president and CEO of Banff Caribou Properties.

“The speed and the timelines of their response in extinguishing the fire was super impressive. Thanks to them, we’ll be welcoming guests back in the next day or two.”

Russ Geyer, deputy fire chief and incident commander, said no one was injured and the blaze was contained to the suite where it started.

“On arrival, the suite was fully involved, was fully burning throughout the whole suite, but we knocked it down fairly quickly,” he said.

“We managed to contain the fire to the suite of origin so the fire didn’t extend to any other places of the building, although there was significant water damage in that area, especially on the floors below.”

Hotel guests were relocated to other properties within Caribou’s portfolio.

“Guests were evacuated and guided to an adjacent property where they could get some sleep,” said Birch.

“They came back to the Caribou Lodge a little later this morning and reclaimed their belongings, which were all intact.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the fire department said it is not considered suspicious.

Birch said the insurance company will have their own investigators, who will work with the fire department to determine the cause.

“Those people are on site going through the unit right now,” he said.

There is currently no dollar estimate for the damage.

“The insurance company is looking at that, and they have an estimator coming out tomorrow (Tuesday) to estimate damages,” said Birch.

There is some water damage, but Birch said a remediation team was on site early Monday morning.

“As we speak most of that has been extracted from places like carpets and furniture,” he said.

The Banff Fire Department arrived with a pump truck, engine truck and aerial platform.

There were 22 firefighters on scene.

Geyer said a passerby reported the fire.

“It took about 30 minutes to actually bring the fire under control and then we were there all night monitoring,” said Geyer.

The Banff Caribou Lodge includes Red Earth Spa, The Keg Steakhouse, 184 hotel rooms and six loft suites.

Birch said Banff is lucky to have such a highly trained fire department.

“There’s a lot of locals on the fire department who take their job seriously,” he said.

“We are fortunate to have them.”

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