High Hampton is the name of a mountain above what is charmingly called 'the Cashiers Valley,' which is in fact atop a plateau on the Continental Divide. Just below the mountain is the location of a century-old resort, golf, and country club. Last night their clubhouse caught fire and burned, and this morning right about dawn we were sent as backup to the Glenville-Cashiers Fire Department which needed relief.
The Fire Marshal came, and there will definitely be trouble about this one. For the most part, fires in this rural county are fought with tanker trucks because there is no such thing as a sewer or water system. In my fire district, we pull our water from free-flowing creeks and rivers in the Nantahala National Forest, or else from Bear or Wolf lake. Other places have different water points, but what nobody has are hydrants you can hook into. Nobody except High Hampton, which installed them as part of their bid to get better prices on insurance. Only last night the hydrants didn't work, and it proves to be because the resort shut them off. The hopeful explanation is that this was in order to increase water pressure to the hotel and homes in the community, as there has been less rain than usual (though it is pouring right now). The explanation that the insurance company is going to want to forward is that they were shut down on purpose to keep firefighters from saving this expensive building.
I of course do not know the truth of such matters. I will say that the resort management were gracious hosts to the firefighting community. This was the first fire I have ever fought that was catered. They brought us large canisters of coffee, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, likewise fresh breakfast sandwiches -- buttered Texas toast, scrambled eggs, sausage, and cheese -- and lots of water and Gatorade. I didn't eat any cookies, but they looked delicious. Neither did I drink any coffee, as it was adequately warm fighting the fire in the August sun, but I was grateful for the water.
Tragically during the mop-up I uncovered the remnants of the beer fridge, in which at least a thousand perfectly good beers were destroyed and reduced to steam. I'm told the tennis balls survived very well in their pressurized containers, however. Fortunately the fire appears to have harmed no human beings, nor any animals either as far as we could tell.
That's a damn shame. Over the years, I did plenty of work on the old Inn. The last project I did on the Inn was replacing the decking on the wrap around front porch. We used Australian Pine for that.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere in one of my buildings, I have part of a floor joist from that job. All the original framing was Chestnut and Wormy Chestnut.
Was it a total loss?
Also used to eat lunch there sometimes at the invitation of their construction manager. It was always a treat.
DeleteIt wasn't the old Inn that burned, just the club house. I'm not sure how old that was.
ReplyDeleteSince I haven't been on the property for at least ten years and for sure since the major renovations to the property, I don't recall where the clubhouse was, unless it's the building that used to be by the driving range. We did a renovation on that one about 12 or so years ago, adding a covered area to the front of the building and adding false beams and new wood paneling on the ceiling.
DeleteI'm glad no one was hurt. As much as I love old, historic buildings, they can be rebuilt or replaced with something else. People . . . not so much.
ReplyDeleteI was helping with post-tornado clean-up once (some injuries, none serious, and no fatalities, Thanks Be to G-d), and a fellow volunteer observed that only in the US are disasters catered. Two local eateries pulled up the the volunteer/fire/ems/sheriff HQ and unloaded sandwiches, BBQ, cold drinks, cookies and brownies, all sorts of things. "We're neighbors," one of the restaurant managers said. "It's what we do."
LittleRed1
Glad nobody was hurt. Curious about those hydrants being shut off, though: Why would it make any difference to the water pressure if the hydrants were normally unused and on standby? There's no flow from the hydrants unless there's a fire to be fought, therefore no effect on pressure or supply. Or were they being used for irrigation? Or was there an unrepaired leak? In the oilpatch, many unintended consequences arise from equipment being poorly maintained while everyone goes on assuming it's fully functional.
ReplyDeleteThat thought occurred to me, too: why would it make any difference to water pressure if the system was fully charged but unused?
ReplyDeleteI imagine the investigation will sort that all out. The insurance company will definitely want answers.