STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

VIDEO BY MICHAEL DAVID

Firefighters from throughout the Wood River Valley continued to fight a fire at Warm Springs Lodge at the base of Bald Mountain Thursday morning.

The alarm sounded at 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, April 18.

Firefighters responded from Ketchum, Sun Valley, Hailey and Wood River fire departments.

Eye on Sun Valley’s Michael David was lying in bed of his home at the base of Warm Springs when he saw the flames shooting out of the roof on the east side of the lodge. He called 911.

A half-hour after firefighters arrived he and his son left the scene because they thought it was out.

“Everyone thought it was a small fire that would get put out. Then it started going again, stronger than ever,” he said. “I didn’t think much of the building would be left at one point as it still appeared to be burning strong inside.”

“The cause is unknown at this time, said Kelli Lusk,” a spokes person for Sun Valley Resort. Lusk had no comment on how much of the lodge had been damaged.

David said from conversations he had with officers at the scene it appeared that the fire broke out in the kitchen of the lodge.

“Maybe they were cleaning the kitchen, with the ski season having ended on Sunday. As far as we could determine, no one was in the building when it happened.”

As Thursday dawned, firefighters were still pouring water on the building.

“If you looked at it from the front, you wouldn’t know anything had happened. But there’s extensive damage on the east side,” David said. “It resembles a smoldering camp fire. It smells horrible. And there’s so much damage to the east side of the building.”