Ski resort to open today after Christmas Day blaze
THE boss of a Scottish ski resort hit by fire on Christmas Day has vowed that the slopes will re-open today. A log cabin cafe on the Glencoe Mountain Resort was extensively damaged after a fire broke out in the early hours.
Eight appliances responded to the blaze at the isolated resort, which is close to the A82 at Ballachulish. But managing director Andy Meldrum pledged the centre would re-open today to skiers. He said: “The main shell of the building is in a real state. We are just having to work around the challenges. We have been open for snow sports for two weeks and it was going well.
“But fortunately when this fire happened there was nobody on site. At the end of the day, it is a building – thankfully, there was nobody inside and there was no threat to life.
"We are fully insured but we are not certain of the cause, though we have CCTV footage that shows a problem with an electrical unit.
“We are extremely grateful for the messages of support – it has been amazing and we will re-open tomorrow. The cafe area is a write-off but we think the ski hire part is salvageable and the ticket office is intact.
“This is a skiers’ mountain and as long as the snow conditions are good, they won’t stop coming. A makeshift cafe or office won’t bother them.”
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said the alarm was raised at 4.40 am on Christmas Day.
Firefighters used water from a nearby burn to douse the flames which engulfed the single-storey timber building.