by Kate Shunney
Local residents, workers, visitors to Berkeley Springs and the area’s business community are mourning the loss of the iconic Treetop House at Coolfont Resort to a Sunday evening fire that quickly consumed the wood lodge building.
Firefighting agencies from four states responded to Cold Run Valley Road on Sunday, January 26 after a 9:30 p.m. call for a smoke investigation turned into a battle against a fully-engulfed three-story building.
Berkeley Springs Volunteer Fire Company was first on the scene and took fire command, with Deputy Chief James Steiner at the lead for what would be an overnight attack.
According to Morgan County 911 officials, all occupants were out of the building when firefighters arrived. Reportedly only two resort employees were on site at the time of the fire.
The Treetop House contains the main check-in for Coolfont Resort, guest rooms, a full restaurant and bar, lounge and conference meeting areas. The Treetop Restaurant normally closes at 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Firefighters arriving on scene found heavy smoke coming from the front of the building.
“By the time we got there, the whole back side of the restaurant was on fire,” said Steiner.
Crews mounted an attack on the fire from the front, but got only 30-40 feet in before they had to retreat because the blaze was so hot.
The fire operations turned to deck guns, firefighting apparatus mounted on the engines themselves.
A regional Tanker Taskforce was dispatched, calling in water-hauling tanker units from half a dozen agencies.
Maintaining a flow of water to fight the fire was a challenge, with the closest dry hydrant 1500 feet away, and a surface of ice five to six inches thick across Lake Siri, Coolfont’s resort lake. Firefighters did pump water from the lake, but it was not deep enough to keep multiple lines supplied at once.
Tankers found multiple other options, including a hydrant at nearby Tractor Supply, to keep fire operations supplied.
West Virginia’s Division of Highways assisted firefighters by working to keep Cold Run Valley Road de-iced as overnight temperatures set in.
The northern portion of the main building remained intact, protected by a fire wall that did its intended job, said Steiner.
Firefighters reported a collapse of the middle portion of the Treetop House complex early in the fire operations.
Much of that material landed in the basement area, and despite being doused with thousands of gallons of water, the remains of the collapse rekindled into active fire again on Monday morning.
Steiner and Frey had returned to the fire station at 5:30 a.m. and two hours later, Berkeley Springs responded back to Coolfont for a rekindle of the blaze.
Frey said firefighters did what they could in the dark on Sunday, and were able to see better on Monday morning as the fire re-established itself.
Fire units were on the scene for roughly three hours on Monday morning, and the West Virginia State Fire Marshall also responded to Coolfont on Monday to begin their investigation.
Steiner said the Treetop House is a total loss. He didn’t have an estimate about the monetary damages associated with the fire.
He said the State Fire Marshall has not released a statement about the cause of the fire. Both Steiner and Frey said the rear of the building was engulfed in flames early in the fire, and neither were able to pinpoint an origin point.
Frey noted that there is excavator equipment on site to remove some of the burned building material, but that would not begin until the Fire Marshal’s Office was done their work.
A large number of fire apparatus came to fight the Coolfont fire, adding specialized resources and manpower.
“There was a lot of crews and a lot of stuff being done,” said Frey. “It ran like a well-oiled machine.”
“Everyone did a great job,” Steiner said.
He said the fire will likely smoke for several days.
Responding to the incident were units from Berkeley Springs, South Morgan, Great Cacapon, Paw Paw, Hancock and Washington County, Md., Gainesboro, Reynold’s Store, Allegany County, Md., Needmore, Martinsburg, Hedgesville, Morgan County EMS and local law enforcement agencies.
Daylight brings sharp reality
On Monday, as fire operations wound down, people with ties to Coolfont came to the resort by car and on foot to see the reality of the fire’s destruction by the light of day.
Dennis Teegardin, who has worked at Coolfont several times as a bartender, said he was shocked to see the blaze take hold on Sunday night. He arrived on the scene around 10 p.m. and recorded a video of flames pouring out of the eaves of the Treetop House. Teegardin said he witnessed each of the windows on the south side of the building explode outward.
On Monday morning, he was back at the resort walking around the devastated structure and talking with other employees and neighbors who had come to see the remains of the Treetop House. Teegardin said there were at least eight weddings planned at Coolfont in the coming year.
Looking at the smoking building, he shook his head.
“My bar is gone. It just fell through,” he said.
A maintenance staff member also stood off to the south side of the Treetop House as Capt. Frey walked the perimeter of the building. The Coolfont employee said he had worked at the resort for two years and heard about the fire as he headed to bed on Sunday night.
“That part is still burning,” he said of flames on the eastern side of the structure.
Other people who live at the nearby Coolfont Mountainside community and along Cold Run Valley Road also came Monday morning to see the fire’s damage as the sun rose over Warm Springs Ridge.
In daylight, there were clear signs of the intense firefighting efforts from hours before.
Water, which flowed in huge quantities as crews contained the flames, created a frozen slick across parking lots and roads closest to the Treetop House. Wet areas below the building showed deep tire tracks where tankers and fire engines had staged to reach the eastern side of the burning building.
A one-lane road is the only access to the back of the three-story building. It ends just short of Lake Siri, Coolfont’s manmade resort lake.
Cars scattered as fire officials said more engines were on their way to make a new attack on the rekindled fire.
Throughout Monday, social media was flooded with individual recollections about Treetop House, where many local young people worked, families have dined out and groups have held events.
The Berkeley Springs-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce released a statement of support of the Omps family, which resurrected the Coolfont Resort in 2016 after it had lain dormant for nearly a decade awaiting redevelopment.
The Omps family applied their long experience in construction to fix up and reopen Coolfont, which includes additional spa and vacation rental buildings on the resort property. No other structures were damaged in Sunday’s fire.
Originally built in 1965 by the Ashelman family, Coolfont operated as a resort getaway for DC metro-area visitors and others looking for a natural retreat in West Virginia. It has served as a draw for Berkeley Springs visitors in the past and had reclaimed its place in the tourism industry following its most recent modernization.