Fire destroys much of Winkler’s Quality Inn
It has stood at the north end of Winkler’s Main St. for decades, providing generations of visitors with a place to stay and serving as a gathering space for countless community celebrations over the years.
Now, a sizeable part of the building that was home to both the Quality Inn & Suites and Smitty’s Restaurant & Lounge has been reduced to rubble after a fire ripped through it last Tuesday afternoon.
Hotel general manager Felicia Penner said it was just a normal day right up to the moment when things took a turn for the worst.
“Then all of a sudden you’re smelling smoke and the alarms are going off. There’s always a possibility it’s a false alarm, but when you also smell the smoke you know it’s real,” she shared. “So everyone did what they needed to do immediately: we evacuated. Everyone met at the muster point.”
Staff quickly cleared the building room by room as they waited for emergency services (“They were there so, so fast,” Penner said, thanking firefighters for their efforts that day), so everyone got out safely, including a dog whose owner was at work when the fire began.
“You open the door and you yell in and you just heard ‘ding, ding, ding, ding’ and it’s his little tail wagging up against his kennel,” Penner recalled. “So I grabbed him and out we went.
“We had the dog at the muster point with us, and that’s where, as [the owner] pulled up, he could see it was okay,” she said, noting it was a joyful reunion amidst the heartbreaking scene unfolding in front of the gathered guests and staff as they watched firefighters battle the blaze.
“Where the muster point was, you could see the smoke on the opposite side of the building and the fire crews working on that part,” Penner recalled. “Being such a long building, as soon as it crept out of that first initial area and hit the pool area … we had a beautiful cedar feature ceiling, and as soon as it hit that, it was game over.”
The fire eventually reached the pool mechanical room and the chemicals stored there, creating noxious fumes and billowing black smoke that could be seen for miles.
Heavy Smoke, Flames
Winkler Fire Chief Richard Paetzold said they were on the scene within minutes of receiving the call at 4:32 p.m.
“There was already heavy fire, heavy smoke showing when we arrived,” he said. “We initially tried to do an interior attack to try and locate the seat of the fire, where it was coming from, and we couldn’t locate it. So that’s when we knew it was in the roof area.”
Firefighters began focusing their efforts there, peeling back strips of the roof in an attempt to get things under control.
The Winkler firefighters were joined by those from Morden Fire & Rescue, who sent their ladder truck to help.
Fire crews were on the scene until well after midnight, stamping out small flare-ups that cropped up after the main fire was quelled.
They were successful in stopping the fire from taking down the entire building—24 rooms on the east side survived—but the damage was still extensive in the central part of the facility that housed 31 rooms, part of the restaurant and lounge, and the pool.
“There were some areas we were able to keep fire and smoke and everything from, but there’s significant damage to portions of the other parts of the building that are still standing,” Paetzold said.
The Office of the Fire Commissioner’s investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
Outpouring Of Support
All in all, if there is such a thing as a good time for a hotel to have a fire, the timing of this one was probably it, Penner said
“It was the middle of the afternoon, so most people hadn’t checked in at that point, and anybody who’s in-house [registered as a guest] was still at work,” she said. “Our housekeeping team had gone home already, so it was kind of minimal staff in the building, and the Smitty’s supper rush hadn’t started yet.”
But the resulting destruction nonetheless has hit the facility’s staff and the community as a whole hard.
Penner said lots of people have reached out to share memories of the space and lament its loss.
“So many people have worked there through the years. We had so many conferences, weddings … it was home to so many people,” she said. “It’s not just the employees who have lost their work space—the community is also grieving with us.”
Support has been pouring in from all over through the past week, and Penner is grateful for it.
Numerous businesses stepped up that day to ensure hotel staff had a place to go, offering food and other services while the shock of everything was still fresh. Local restaurants also brought food out to the firefighters as they worked through the night.
In the days following the fire, even more people reached out to ensure the hotel’s team were taken care of, offering up office space, massages, counselling, and more, along with countless messages of sympathy.
“There’s been flowers, there’s been donuts. So many hugs,” Penner said. “Saying ‘thank-you’ doesn’t feel like it’s enough. We’re so grateful to everyone.”
It’s too soon to say what the next steps for the site will be, including whether the parts still standing are salvageable. The hotel had thousands of room and event bookings through this year and well into the next. They’re reaching out to patrons to let them know what’s happened.
“It’s like an apocalypse going through those hallways,” Penner said. “The power’s off, so it’s dark. It’s wet. And then you open a room door and it’s just pristine—the beds are made and it smells clean.
“We’re going day by day right now,” she continued, noting management’s focus is on supporting their staff—between the hotel and the restaurant there were nearly 70 people employed there—including providing access to counselling and helping them find other employment.
“I’ll do everything I can to help them all find new jobs. That’s the best thing for the immediate future,” Penner said. “And when the time comes, I would be honoured to have the crew back.”
