Shilo Inn outbuilding fire causes $30,000 damage

Houses furnaces for lobby, restaurant; traced to electrical short in light fixture

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A fire in a small furnace outbuilding at Bend’s Shilo Inn on Sunday morning caused about $30,000 damage, prompted some evacuations and knocked out heat for the hotel’s lobby, restaurant and heated driveway, officials said.

Bend Fire & Rescue responded around 10:40 a.m. to the reported fire at the hotel on O.B. Riley Road, in a structure not attached to any buildings with hotel rooms, Deputy Fire Marshal Dan Derlacki said.

Bend police and Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies began to evacuate occupants of two adjacent buildings as a precaution, Derlacki said. Fire crews arrived and were able to put out the first, keeping from spreading beyond the outbuilding.

The building houses three furnaces that heat the restaurant and lobby buildings, as well as the hotel’s heated driveway, the fire official said.

All three furnaces will be out of service until repairs can be made. Derlacki said Shilo Inn staff was working to provide temporary heat to the involved buildings.

Crews found no damage to other buildings, he said, and all rooms ere opened to occupants again shortly after the fire was extinguished.

The fire apparently was caused by an electrical short in a light fixture, Derlacki said.