The fire at the Kyle Hotel is out, but not before completely destroying the building.

Kyle Mayor Doug Barker is also a volunteer EMT and said he got the call at 5:27 p.m. last night about the blaze.

"There was a lot of smoke coming out of the doorways, out of the chimney from the basement," he said. "It was mostly smoke, very heavy dense smoke coming out of that building when I first got there. The firefighter [had] the truck hooked up to the hydrant and firefighters were going downstairs with their apparatuses."

Last year the Kyle lost their motel and this year they've lost their hotel. According to Barker, the hotel was built in 1946 and the owners didn't have insurance on it.

"Our community doesn't have any hotel space anymore, we don't have any rooms for travelers so that's a real bad blow for us," he said. "So hopefully we can get something rebuilt and in place but we will have to see what happens."

Numerous emergency services responded to the injury-free fire including RCMP, EMS, and three fire departments (Kyle, Beechy, and Elrose).

"The firefighters went down to the heavy smoke in the basement," Barker explained. "They went downstairs and tried to fight it from the basement, got as far as they could and then the fire just got too much and got up into the walls and they couldn't contain it."

Once the fire engulfed the building in flames the fire crews started to hose down surrounding businesses including The Farmer's Grill and the Prairie Centre Credit Union.

"Making sure nothing else went and they did succeed with that," he said. "The credit union suffer a lot of smoke damage and some water damage with the spraying of the water on the roof and stuff like that. They're just cleaning up and they will be operational at the beginning of next week."

A release from the RCMP at 11:30 a.m. this morning stated: "the cause of the fire is still under investigation."

"What was in the basement was their hot water tank, their furnaces, washer, and dryer," Barker said. "I can't speculate, but there is mechanical stuff down there, where it started, I do not know."

Fire crews remain on scene dousing hot spots and clean up crews have arrived as well. The Town of Kyle is asking residents to avoid the area so the cleanup can begin.

RCMP Photo