With the fire out, crews monitored the area around Mary's Lake Lodge in Estes Park for hot spots, into Sunday morning.
Crews were first called to the fire Saturday around 8:10 p.m, according to Mike Richardson with Estes Valley Fire Protection District. He said the fire broke out in the main lodge during a wedding reception. Everyone was cleared from the building and no one was hurt. The cause is unknown.
The new day's light revealed just how much the fire, which took around 50 firefighters to extinguish, damaged. An aerial view of Mary's Lake Lodge showed a partially collapsed roof. So far, $5 million in damage.
Richardson said firefighters were able to attack the flames inside the building for the first hour before the roof started caving in. That's when they had to evacuate and approach the fire from a more defensive approach.
"We called it contained about 1:20 a.m.," Richardson said.
On Sunday morning, a couple, who married at the Lodge Friday night, waited for crews to retrieve their belongings from their hotel room using a bucket ladder.
"There's no access to our room from the building," Stephen Rushfeldt said. "The stairwell is blocked by a large section of roof."
Among the items in their honeymoon suite was Rushfeldt's wife's wedding dress who spent Saturday night and Sunday morning thinking she would never see it again. Crews were able to recover it along with a wine box of love letters from the bride's and groom's parents as well as the only copy of their wedding vows.
Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are still looking for what started the fire. Richardson said crews will continue to monitor for hot spots over the next couple of days.
