[pct-l] Callahan's burns

[Kent Spring]

http://www.mailtribune.com/cgi-bin/p/psafe/psafe.pl


September 3, 2006     

Callahan's Destroyed
Afternoon fire levels Rogue Valley landmark; 
no injuries reported
By Chris Conrad              Mail Tribune

A pair of charred stone chimneys is all that's left of
a Rogue Valley icon after a Saturday afternoon blaze
leveled Callahan's Siskiyou Lodge just south of
Ashland off Interstate 5.

No one was injured in the fire, which spread quickly
throughout the 59-year-old all-wood lodge and
restaurant. Early indications point to the blaze
sparking in the kitchen, Jackson County Fire District
5 Chief Dan Marshall said.

For many of the onlookers who pulled off the
interstate after seeing the thick smoke pouring off
the wooden structure, the destruction of Callahan's
was the end of an era.

"I actually just said to my daughter, 'Do you want to
get a cold drink at Callahan's," Carol Hamacher said.
Hamacher, of Medford, who had spent a peaceful day
with her daughter at the Tibetan Buddhist temple in
the Colestin Valley, said she had dined at the lodge
since she was a child.

"We're so very sorry for the owners," she said. "It's
just a mainstay in the 

Near Hamacher, a handful of Callahan's employees
fought tears and leaned on each other for support as
the flames ate through the roof and tore into the air
high above the lodge.

The three-alarm blaze sent firefighters from across
the valley scrambling. It proved a challenge initially
as the hot weather, remote water access and traffic
combined to hamper early efforts to save the building,
Marshall said.


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