A faulty fridge is believed to have sparked a devastating fire that left a beloved Deeside hotel a burnt-out shell.
Fire crews from as far as Dundee rushed to the Braemar Lodge Hotel this morning after a fire broke out at a nearby shed.
Eight fire engines, as well as specialist support teams, were deployed to the scene at around 7.30am to tackle the flames, which were seen shooting into the sky following an explosion.
Nearby residents fled their homes “shocked and upset” as the blaze spread to the historic hotel, and described how the flames were “roaring”.
‘Miracle nobody was injured’
Braemar Lodge Hotel, which had seven bedrooms, a 12-bedroom bunkhouse and nine self-catering lodges, has been recently undergoing renovations.
A full investigation into the cause of the blaze is under way, but fire group commander Ewan Baird believes it was a faulty fridge.
He told the P&J: “The likelihood is that there’s been a faulty fridge, which set an electrical fire. That then set the outer building alight and subsequently set fire to the LPG sounder which has catastrophically exploded and set the hotel on fire.
“It’s a miracle nobody was hurt and everybody was safely evacuated with that explosion.
“We’ve made contact with everybody who was in the building, they have all been fully accounted for and that has now been left in the hands of police.”
Roof and ground floor are ‘completely gone’
Mr Baird described how the situation unfolded this morning, with the first crew on scene reporting quickly that at least 70% of the hotel had already been lost.
“I was alerted at around 8.15am of fire within one of the buildings outwith the Braemar Lodge Hotel,” he said. “We were mobilised when the first crews that attended sent back a message that the fire had spread to the hotel.
“At around 8.30am while we were en route, a message came through that 70% of the hotel was involved in the fire.
“Our priority was to make sure everybody was evacuated from the hotel and that we had efficient water supplies to extinguish the fire.
“We had a great challenge in trying to get robust water supply in time to extinguish the fire, so we had to tap into open water supply from nearby rivers – pumping it up to the hotel for a height appliance to get to the blaze from the roof.
“The building has remained relatively intact but the contents of the building – the roof and the ground floor – are completely gone.”
Community praised for coming together
Braemar Lodge Hotel, formerly a Victorian shooting lodge dating back to 1870, was put on the market in 2019 for around £1.2million.
Ronnie and Fiona Moore, who owned it for nearly 30 years, were too upset to talk about the incident today.
The new management team has been contacted.
The flames are now extinguished, but fire crews will remain at the scene overnight to ensure it is safe.
Mr Baird added: “A massive thanks to the local crews who were doing absolutely everything they could to save their local hotel – but it was a losing battle from the start unfortunately.
“It’s refreshing to see how the community has come together to also help as much as they can, although there was nothing they could have done to save the hotel.”
Members of the community have been offering up bacon sandwiches and hot drinks to those who were evacuated from nearby properties and the firefighters.
Danielle Irvine, who works at Farquharson’s Bar and Kitchen, said: “You need to do things like this especially in a small community like this. The least we can do is give [the firefighters] a buttie.
“The community in Braemar always pulls together when there’s something like this.”