Photos courtesy Paul Ross
It took two fires to destroy a cabin at L’Auberge de Sedona on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 27 and 28. The first fire, probably caused by a faulty heating lamp, caused about $75,000 worth of damage to the cabin on Monday afternoon. Shortly before 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, a second fire burned the cabin to the ground. Damage was estimated at $300,000. No guests occupied the cabin at the time of either fire and no injuries were reported. Sedona Fire District firefighters were able to contain the blaze and no other structures were damaged. For more details, please see the Wednesday, Oct. 29 edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.
Photos courtesy Paul Ross
It took two fires to destroy a cabin at L’Auberge de Sedona on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 27 and 28. The first fire, probably caused by a faulty heating lamp, caused about $75,000 worth of damage to the cabin on Monday afternoon. Shortly before 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, a second fire burned the cabin to the ground. Damage was estimated at $300,000. No guests occupied the cabin at the time of either fire and no injuries were reported. Sedona Fire District firefighters were able to contain the blaze and no other structures were damaged. For more details, please see the Wednesday, Oct. 29 edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.
By Alison Ecklund and Greg Ruland
Larson Newspapers
“Get out now. Get out now,” the man shouted, pounding on the cabin door.
“L’Auberge is on fire,” shouted another.
That’s how Paul Ross and Judith Fein, journalists from Santa Fe, were rousted out of bed at L’Auberge de Sedona early Tuesday morning, Oct. 28.
“We opened the door and saw these flames leaping toward our cabin — huge flames just licking the sky,” Fein said.
“Then we just ran,” she said.
A small number of guests needed to be evacuated and all made it to safety at the resort’s main lodge, Fein said.
Guests stood around in bathrobes and compared notes on their experience as Sedona firefighters battled to contain the blaze.
With just five seconds to make up their minds about what to take, Ross grabbed his digital camera, a tool of his trade, and Fein grabbed her night guard, a dental device that aids her sleep.
Fein said another guest, a woman who recently finished chemotherapy, grabbed her wig and put it on.
A nursing mother on vacation with her mom took her baby to safety, but then couldn’t locate her mother.
“She was just screaming for her mom,” Fein said.
A newlywed couple emerged from their cabin wearing bathrobes provided by the resort. Noticing her husband was barefoot, the woman ran back into their cabin to get her husband’s shoes.
“I told him, ‘You married the right woman,’” Fein chuckled.
Ross and Fein won their stay at L’Auberge during a conference of travel writers and photographers in Scottsdale earlier in the week, she said.
It was the second time the cabin caught fire in two days.
Firefighters from Sedona Fire District Station No. 4 first also responded to a fire in the cabin’s bathroom at 2:47 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27.
The fire was started by an overheated heat lamp in the cabin’s bathroom. Guests had checked out of the cabin earlier that day, and the cabin was unoccupied at the time of the fire.
The bathroom fire was put out quickly thanks to L’Auberge staff that cut the electricity as soon as the fire was discovered.
SFD Fire Marshal Will Loesche estimated Monday’s fire caused $75,000 worth of damage.
Then, around 5:20 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, SFD received another call for a fire in the same cabin.
This time, it took fire crews from nearly an hour to put out the flames, Loesche said.
Firefighters doused the cabin with water from all sides, he said, but the cabin was destroyed. Loesche estimated the value at $300,000.
Loesche was shoveling debris at press time to determine if the fire was caused by embers from the previous fire.
“We can’t rule that out,” Loesche said. “That’s what we are digging to discover right now.”
Fire crews stayed on scene after the original fire Monday afternoon for more than an hour to check for hot spots, Johnson said.
Tuesday’s fire was discovered by Sedona police offficer Truman Peyote during a routine patrol.
When Peyote realized the cabin was unoccupied, he evacuated the guests in nearby cabins to safety.
None of the cabins have sprinklers, Loesche said. Fire crews connected to water hydrants on the property.
Johnson said the resort has been proactive in fire prevention, and he has been there many times to teach staff fire safety classes and hands-on fire extinguisher drills.
L’Auberge had no comment.
Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 125, or e-mail
aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com.
