A fire on the afternoon of May 16 consumed the Kyle Hotel, which was opened in 1942.
Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads
The nearly 80-year-old Kyle Hotel has been lost to a fire and the void created by the loss is starting to be addressed by the community.
First responders received the 911 emergency call about a fire at the Kyle Hotel shortly after 5 p.m. on May 16, according to the Swift Current Rural RCMP detachment. Firefighters from Kyle, Elrose and Beechy departments responded to the call for assistance.
Members of the Kyle and District Fire Department received the call at 5:21 p.m., and they were dispatched and on scene by 5:30 p.m., says a statement made by officials in Kyle on May 17. The call for assistance went out to other departments with the risk to neighbouring buildings. The hotel was built in 1941.
As recognized by the statement, smoke was coming from the hotel’s basement and firefighters were unable to locate the source of the fire due to the smoke and heat. Authorities say the cause of the fire is “undetermined.”
The hotel has been lost, but the efforts of firefighters saved all adjacent buildings despite the high winds that afternoon. A Prairie Centre Credit Union branch across the street was closed for two days due to related damages, an official said.
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Area farmers and members of the Kyle Hutterite Colony also responded to the fire with water trucks. The official statement on May 17 thanks all of the firefighters and volunteers from the community and area that helped in any way.
Chief George Akister of the Kyle and District Fire Department said members were still on scene watching for flare-ups at noon the following day, but the department and its equipment were back in service an hour later. The response by the department included 13 members, a pumper truck and rescue unit.
The chief said three of the department’s members had arrived on scene within minutes of the 911 call. The basement was filled with smoke when the firefighters first arrived and Akister said the hotel’s main floor was also filling with smoke.
He noted that there were no visible flames at the time, but the basement consisted of several rooms and it was not safe for firefighters to locate the source of the fire. Firefighters made three attempts to gain access to the basement. On the third attempt, Akister said members had to turn back after about five steps into the entrance way to the basement because it was already too hot and smoky.
“We pretty much knew 10 minutes in that we weren’t going to win,” the chief said, recognizing that the building was overwhelmed by the flames very quickly and the 50 to 70 km/h winds did not help matters. “It just goes so fast.”
Akister said neighbouring buildings became the focus when officials realized the hotel could not be saved.
The chief said it had been a while since the department had to respond to such a large fire in town. He said a majority of the department’s calls are for rural fires such as wildfires.
Chief Ross Oliphant of the Elrose Volunteer Fire Department and Ambulance said the department responded with eight members, two fire engines and a rescue unit. He said the hotel’s roof was mostly tin, so it helped because firefighters did not have to worry about flaming shingles flying around.
Mayor Doug Barker, who has lived in Kyle for 11 years, is a member of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) staff in the area. He said as EMS, he knew about the fire right away after he received the emergency call.
He noted that he believes things are getting back to as normal as possible in the community given the circumstances. He said as of May 22, town officials had yet to talk to the hotel’s owners in person. There was a good response to the fire including the mutual aid from other fire departments and establishments such as Boston Pizza in Swift Current and the White Bear Hotel provided food for the firefighters, Barker said.
He said he could see smoke coming from all levels of the building when he first arrived on scene, but there were no flames visible at the time. Once the fire had entered the walls, the building did not last long, he said.
He noted that the hotel provided the only temporary accommodations for visitors to the community. The Kyle & District Chamber of Commerce held a meeting on May 22 and the void of hotel accommodations was a topic at the meeting, according to the mayor. The hotel was important to the community.
“I don’t think we’ll get over it,” Barker said, adding that several members of the community showed up to check out the fire and bystanders did a good job to stay back and let the fire crews respond to the blaze.
The hotel was built by Olaf and Thor Hesla in 1941 and it opened for business in 1942. Darlene Smith, a daughter of Olaf’s who has lived in Kyle most of her life.
She noted that she is one of four daughters in the family, and one of three daughters alive today. Smith said someone told her there was a fire downtown and it was at the hotel, so she jumped in her car to investigate. It was emotional for her to see the historic building on fire.
“The first thing I thought of was my dad,” she said, recognizing that she called her sisters the next day. “I just stood there and watched it, and I thought, ‘well there goes history.’ It made me think of a lot of things.”
Smith said Thor was her father’s older brother and Thor moved from Norway to Saskatchewan to start a farm in the Kyle area. Her father tried to help on the farm when he first arrived, but he knew very little about farming. Olaf needed something to do, so he opened a butcher shop.
The family lived above the butcher shop, so it was her first home and she lived there with her parents and an older sister. Her father and uncle decided to open a hotel, and that was located west of the current location, according to Smith. It was not long before the brothers needed a larger hotel, so they built a new building at the corner of Centre Street and Railway Avenue where it stood until last week.
She noted that she had little to do with the hotel, but she did spend a lot of time there growing up and she worked there for one summer when her father was short on staff. Smith said the hotel was a popular destination for travelling salesmen at the time. The gathering place will be missed by community members of all ages, she added.
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