Historic Carmangay hotel burns to the ground
By Dale Woodard on March 30, 2021.
An historical building in Carmangay has been lost.The Grange Hotel, a nearly 112-year-old building in the village roughly 60 kilometres northwest of Lethbridge, was destroyed in a fire early Sunday that started at approximately 1:30 a.m.
As of Sunday afternoon, the cause of the fire was unknown, but there were no injuries or fatalities.
And in windy conditions that intensified later in the day and necessitated the brief evacuation of Carmangay Sunday afternoon when a grass fire near Claresholm burned out of control, Carmangay mayor Stacey Hovde gave credit to the fire department for containing the blaze with minimal damage to nearby buildings.
“I can’t give enough praise to the fire department,” he said, adding if the neighbouring structures went up in flames the situation could have been far worse for the village. “Vulcan County Emergency Management did a call-out to all of the municipalities and I think there were 10 departments here helping to save the other buildings. The hotel itself, they weren’t able to save it. The fire was too established, but their efforts and their decision-making went a long way in saving the other buildings.”
About 50 firefighters from the 10 communities attended the fire.
Hovde said he arrived on the scene a little after 1 a.m. Sunday morning.
“The Carmangay and Champion fire department were here. There was some smoke coming out of the top of the hotel, but it wasn’t long after that that you could see the flames.”
The Grange Hotel dates back to 1909 and was one of the original buildings in Carmangay when it was established in 1905, said Hovde.
“So, 111 years later, here it is. It had already survived two or three major fires in the village that destroyed most of the village, but it was a survivor of those. But now, it couldn’t survive this one.”
The Grange is famous for being the host of The Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade In The World.
“We started at the village office and walked across the street. Sometimes there would be hundreds of participants,” said Hovde “It’s a landmark and a meeting place. Everybody knows about the famous Carmangay St. Patrick’s Day parade. People end up in The Grange for green beer and live music. So there is a rich history with that building and it will be dearly missed.”
An abandoned building across the street — also one of the oldest buildings in Carmangay — sustained some damage as a result of the fire, as did the vinyl siding on the library, said Hovde.
“The building beside (the library) was the bistro that was just established at this time last year and we were fortunate the fire department put an emphasis on trying to save that building. That is one of the most important buildings we have right at the moment.”
On Sunday afternoon, Hovde noted members of the fire department were still on scene after having worked through the night.
“You can still see we have fire personnel around, mainly the Carmangay Fire Department. They’ve been going since 1:15 a.m. So big praise to those volunteers.”
As of Sunday afternoon, residents and onlookers stopped by to survey the situation and take some pictures.
“Just that it’s a tragedy,” said Hovde of the local feedback. “It’s going to be dearly missed. It was such an important part of Carmangay’s history. We’ll have to get over that and see what we do next.”
Later Sunday afternoon, Carmangay residents were forced to evacuate their homes due to a wild fire northeast of Claresholm that was fanned by 100km-plus winds.
The fire resulted in the closure of Highway 23 from Nobleford to north of Champion.
As of Sunday evening, the Willow Creek Fire Department stated the wildfire had been contained. Later that evening the MD of Willow Creek advised all residents in the affected areas were allowed to return to their properties and given wild fire re-entry information to assess any utility issues or property damage. Follow @DWoodardHerald on Twitter 3
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