Fire marshals and insurance adjuster to investigation fire that destroyed Caribou Hotel, 5 cars parked outside
Glennallen’s only hotel burned to the ground Wednesday. Everyone got out of the Caribou Hoteland no injuries were reported. But the chamber of commerce president says it’s a big loss to the community -- and for travelers passing through the area.
Alaska State Troopers say they got a report just after 8 a.m. of smoke coming out of the Caribou Hotel in downtown Glennallen. Local resident Jordanny Sutherland said Wednesday afternoon that she was shocked to see the smoke and flames engulfing the log structure.
“It’s devastating,” she said. “I can’t believe it happened. I saw it on my way to work this morning.”
Troopers and emergency personnel from three area EMS agencies responded and ensured all the people staying in the hotel were evacuated.
James Fields, who co-owns the business along with his brother, says the guests and a handful of workers who lived at the hotel got out quickly.
“I think there was like 15 occupants,” he said Wednesday afternoon. “And then of course there were some employees that had some housing in there.”
Troopers say at least five vehicles in the parking lot were damaged by the fire. And some were totaled.
Fields says members of community scrambled to help the people staying in the hotel.
“We’ve had plenty of people that’ve come out that’ve said ‘I’ve got a room here, I’ve got a room there.’ So, the community’s been very generous. And they normally are on these things. It doesn’t surprise me at all.”
But he said it was all pretty overwhelming.
“It's just emotionally draining. You're, you deal with 15 people that lost all their stuff in their rooms ...”
Sutherland agrees. She says travelers passing through on their way to Anchorage and back won’t be able to stop and stay over at the hotel now. Even worse for folks from Valdez who can’t get home if heavy snow closes Thompson pass just north of the city.
“ So I mean, it's going to be devastating to anybody coming through if Thompson Pass closes,” she said. “It's going to be hard for anybody to find a place to stay around here, I think this winter.”
Likewise, she said, for the mushers competing in the Copper Basin 300 sled dog race, who usually stay at the Caribou Hotel every January. She says there are few AirB’n’B-type rentals in town, but far fewer places to stay now that the hotel’s 55 rooms are no longer available.
Sutherland is president of the Glennallen-based Copper Valley Chamber of Commerce.
“Yeah, I mean the community –- we have to have a hotel here.”
Fields agrees. And he say he and his brother already are talking about rebuilding the Caribou Hotel. But it’s too soon to commit to that. They’ve got more immediate tasks to get to, like talking today with an insurance adjuster and two deputy state fire marshals.
The adjuster will help the Fields brothers come up with a dollar value of the loss, so they can make an insurance claim. And the fire marshals determine the probable cause of the fire.