The last thing I expected when I answered the door in my pyjamas this morning was for my friend Tiff to tell me the hotel we work in had had a fire overnight. Not just a little fire; it's burnt down to the ground. Nearly a hundred years old (and that's old for Canada), and the whole thing's gone except for a chimney breast. Four floors, a restaurant, a bar, a gift shop, all that history....and it's all gone. They don't know what caused the fire. There were four guests in the hotel, and one staff member (if the fire had happened tonight, not last night, that would've been me in the hotel overnight), and everyone got out ok. It happened at around 2.45am, and was on fire for hours. The fire brigade are 40 minutes away, so it's lucky everyone got out quickly. We were there about midday and they were still hosing it down...not that there's much to hose. When we just drove past at 8.30pm, the fire brigade were still there, fencing it all off. The hotel was full of all these old antiques, and pretty much the only thing I could see this morning in all the mess was this crazy metal teapot. The epic destruction of it all just amazes me. There is NOTHING left. Apparently they're going to rebuild it but that won't happen while we're still here.We've been assured we'll all keep our jobs....the company that owned the hotel own another property in Waterton that was shut down for the winter, so we're just moving everything over there. It'll mean my job will change though, since there'll be no bar for me to work in, just a front desk (=the end of tips). I think we'll have quite a lot to do over the next few days to get everything set up over at the Resort. So, that was my day. I'm still in shock, I think. I got so sad earlier thinking of all the history in that place. And all the fun times I've had in only two and a half months. This feels so strange, so I think I'm going to watch tv.
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