Fire at Gunflint Lodge

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Fire demolishes duplex cabin at Gunflint Lodge
Jane Howard, Cook County News Herald, 10/31/09
“Fire! Evacuate!” is what woke Carlson up.

He threw his clothes on, grabbed the bag that had his car keys in it, and left the building. Thearea outside the cabin was bright from flames about four feet high and 10 feet wide that were already consuming the cabin’s roof.

According to Carlson, Bob Smith, the trip leader, had awakened to a sound on the roof that he thought at first was a large animal. After a couple of seconds, he realized it was probably the sound of fire.

Carlson went back inside the building to retrieve the rest of his belongings. One of the nine people staying in the cabin was trying to extinguish the fire near its source, the fireplace, but when Carlson got back outside, he could see the fire was already inside the ceiling of the second floor.

Carlson went around to the adjacent unit to make sure everyone had been able to get out of the building. Smoke did not fill the cabin right away, and everyone was out before the smoke detectors went off, Carlson said. Four of them had to leave their belongings behind.

Carlson scraped the ice off his truck, drove down to the lodge, went down to the fire station, and then headed back to the lodge to make sure someone had called 911. All of this happened within about four minutes, Carlson estimated. Two fire engines showed up with lights flashing and sirens blaring after he walked back to the cabin.

Carlson helped carry a propane tank and hoses and set up pumps in the lake. After that, he said, he “got out of the way.”

The Cook County Law Enforcement Center received a call at 1:14 a.m. from Bill Lyon. Its log states, “Bill Lyon reporting Cabin 27 at Gunflint Lodge roof is totally engulfed in fire. Everyone is out of the building. Tried some preliminary firefighting. Might have been fireplace.”

“It’s pretty clear it was a chimney fire,” said John Olson of the Twin Cities, one of the ski club volunteers staying in the cabin.

Olson was impressed with the fire department. “They have excellent equipment up there. He said numerous “beautiful trucks” showed up.

When Mike Carlson was asked if people seemed traumatized, he said, “I was.”

One of the guests lost his jacket, his keys, and his billfold in the fire. “He basically got out with what he had on,” Carlson said.

Gunflint Lodge staff eventually got the guests settled in other accommodations. Before leaving, cabin guests were asked to write down what they had lost in the fire. Mike Carlson did lose one thing. He said, “I lost a bag of wasabi peas.”

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The North Star Ski Club has a longstanding tradition of clearing trails along the North Shore and the Gunflint Trail, according to John Olson. Each year, a lodge puts them up for a couple of days while they work. The fire didn’t happen until they completed their mission, and the club plans to return for a winter ski trip. Olson, age 70, said the fire was “all part of the adventure.”

Gunflint Lodge owner Bruce Kerfoot, in Florida at the time of the fire, is grateful no one was injured in the fire.

According to Kerfoot, the cause of the fire “appears to have been an accident that came from the fireplace.” He said maintenance of the building exceeded fire code standards. “We clean our chimneys, we have no elbows, we are careful about the wood we burn, and we add extra safety fireproofing around the fireplaces.

“The fire department was just phenomenal,” Kerfoot continued. “Within minutes, they were on the scene.” He said four fire trucks and 20 firefighters were there. “Everybody knew what to do. …Kudos to them.”

By Wednesday, October 28, arrangements had been made for heavy equipment to demolish the site and prepare it for reconstruction. Kerfoot said he hoped framing would begin within two or three weeks and the new cabin would be completed by the first of June.

Kerfoot built the original building in 1979 or 1980, he said, with state-of-the-art energy efficiency techniques designed by the University of Minnesota. Things have changed a lot since then, and this new building will be as green as it can be, Kerfoot said. Like the first cabin, it will be sheltered by the earth – partly buried. It will have tubular skylights to lessen the need for electric lights, off-peak heat, and low-wattage light bulbs. It will also be very upscale, with a sauna, hot tub, stone counters, and possibly rooms for games and movie watching.

The Cook County News- Herald was not able to contact incident commander Bob Baker by press time.

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Life has been a little more hectic than usual around here. On Thursday night I was awakened at 1:00 a.m. or so by Sheryl. Cabin #26/27 was on fire. I looked out my bedroom window and could see the glow from the flames. Even though the fire department responded immediately and did a great job, the building is totally gone as the picture above shows. The most important thing is that no one was hurt.

As I watched the fire burn, my thoughts turned to where the cabin fit in our lives. We built it in 1978-79. Robert tells me he was in kindergarten. It was our first earth-sheltered unit. Bruce says he learned what not to do in the next unit. J. T. McMillion was working for us. He hauled by hand all the cement blocks down from the road to the building site for Bruce to build the foundation with. J. T. is now a senior pilot with Southwest Airlines. I think he got his pilot’s license after hauling all those blocks.

That winter we were really behind in building. Our neighbors, Fred and Lois Mauck, came down to help us. They used to own a recording studio in Davenport, Iowa. At any rate, Fred did paneling and Lois did sealing of the paneling. Bruce and I also worked down there every day. I did some paneling upstairs and help Lois seal the high ceilings in the stair wells. After work, I would make dinner for all of us. I got to the “J’s” addressing Christmas cards that year but never got any further. There was no time. Fred and Lois are both gone now but they were a godsend that year.

Many wonderful guests have used the cabin since then. When Walter Mondale stayed with us after he received the Democratic Nomination for President, he and his family were in #27. We had to run a telephone line to the cabin, after all, he was the Vice President of the United States! His staff also needed the phone line for this fancy new machine they had rented for the campaign. It came in an aluminum case with foam all around it. The machine was a facsimile machine – the first one we had ever seen!

The cabin will live on in our memory even as it is replaced this winter. That’s right – we are into full building mode. As I type Bruce is talking with our contractor. The insurance adjuster has come and gone. On Monday the contractor will come to start cleaning the mess up and putting in the septic system. I am sure that Bruce will have building plans by then. All the managers have their assignments for the new project. The replacement will be two cabins. At the moment after studying Dave Schudy’s statistics on our occupancy, it looks like one one-bedroom and one three-bedroom unit. The applications for building permits are sitting on Bruce’s desk. I will keep you current with what is happening.

Of course, life still going on at the resort. On Saturday we had our wine dinner. It was a sellout with 50 people and went very well. There is a picture of getting the wines set up. This weekend is wild game. Then we have two weekends of work weekend. Those are always fun. During one of them a group of eight women come up to split wood. After working, they retire to their cabin for some adult refreshments. But what a huge stack of wood they leave behind.

I’ll try to write more frequently but time is very short right now.
Posted by Sue Kerfoot on Gunflint Lodge's Blog

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Photos of Cabin 26 before the fire

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Photos of Cabin 27 before the fire