Kellogg, Idaho was plunged into chaos after the McConnell Hotel caught fire on the 29th August 2017, and subsequently ignited another large fire as embers from the four-storey blaze set surrounding areas up in smoke.
The fire began on the 29th August 2017 at 3:20pm as stated by the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office, and the blaze rapidly powered through the old hotel, which is located at the corner of Main Street and West Portland Avenue.
The damage has been pretty extensive, with the structure completely ripped apart as the fire burned through every floor, which caused one outer wall to completely collapse, the roof to cave in, and another wall has been left bulging.
To make matters worse, embers from the hotel blaze were then caught by the wind and triggered another fire about a block and a half away down at Patrick’s Inn and Steakhouse, located at 305 S. Division St. While the building was vacant, it had a wood shingle roof.
It appears that buildings in that specific area of Kellogg are very close together, and as a result, the fire managed to spread to an adjacent building. The McConnell Hotel is a complete write-off as a result of the blaze, but at time of writing (30th August 2017), there’s no word on the damage caused to other structures that were impacted.
The fires were successfully put out by the Kellogg Fire Department, who were flanked with mutual aid from agencies across Kootenai County and the Silver Valley, while buildings adjacent to the hotel were wet down in order to prevent the blaze from further spreading.
Thankfully, the hotel was vacant and as such, no injuries have been reported among the local residents. However, 536 people were left without power in Kellogg due to the blaze, but this only lasted around 45 minutes.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
