Fire at the Lookout Motel
Photo by Chanse Watson Mullan firefighters Mike Walsh (left) and Dale Stepro Jr. hose down the burning Lookout Motel office building.
South view (across the river) of the Lookout Motel fire. Exposed wires giving off electrical sparks can be seen on the left side of the photo near the small house where the fire began.
Firecrews spent hours watering down the affected structures to prevent the fire from spreading to any other buildings.
District One firefighter Jack Long on the southwest side of the small house where the fire started. This side was also given special attention due to ist proximity to another home.
Things got hot in Mullan Wednesday afternoon when fire crews responded to a fire at the old Lookout Motel.
Toned out to the fire at 12:32 p.m., Mullan Volunteer Fire (MVF) Department and Shoshone County District Three Fire were first on scene and set up a perimeter on River Street.
When they arrived, Mullan firefighter Patrick Nolan said that the fire had already completely engulfed a small apartment on the southwest side of the Lookout Motel office building and began to crawl up the office building itself.
Shortly before the initial crews responded, a call for back-up was sent to Shoshone County District One Fire in Osburn, who arrived not too long after.
District One fire chief Aaron Cagle explained that, in addition to the buildings not having any sort of fire stops, the fire spread so quickly to the office because of stacked firewood situated between the two buildings catching fire.
Nolan confirms that the fire began in the small apartment, although the cause is still unknown at this time.
“Its too early to be determined,” Nolan said.
He did note that the apartment where the fire began did have a wood burning stove in it.
Once the flames jumped from the apartment to the old office, it did not take long for it to spread throughout the building.
“It went through that office pretty quick,” Nolan said.
“These buildings are close to a hundred years old,” Cagle added.
Though unfortunate as the fire damage was to the two buildings, which have been declared complete losses, the real story of the day was that there were no injuries and that the inferno did not spread to any other buildings once fire crews arrived on scene.
An elderly man (and resident of the small apartment) was checked for smoke inhalation, but was not seriously hurt and refused a trip to the hospital.
Nolan especially gave thanks to a handy and simple piece of fire fighting technology, the water wall.
“That water wall saved the day,” Nolan said when explaining how the fire did not spread to the home situated to the west of the fire.
It was an all hands-on-deck situation.
Nolan made sure to thank all assisting agencies, including Avista, who were quick on scene to make sure that the power and natural gas being fed to the complex were shut off.
All fire crews in the Silver Valley contributed to putting out the blaze in one way or another, either through man power or equipment.