The cause of the fire that left the Travelodge Hotel on Memorial Avenue with extensive damage is still under investigation.
Fire prevention director Brian Berringer said because of the size of the fire and the high-dollar loss, Thunder Bay Fire and Rescue brought in a fire marshal from Barrie to investigate and help them determine the cause.
The fire marshal arrived on scene Monday morning.
The fire occurred around 5 a.m. Saturday and guests were immediately evacuated. They waited out the fire on Thunder Bay Transit buses until being moved to the Arthur Street Travelodge location.
“The damage in the building is quite extensive,” said Berringer. “The kitchen area of the restaurant has been totally destroyed and there is quite a bit of debris.”
He added there is smoke damage throughout the rest of the hotel as well.
“As the day progresses, we’ll be cleaning out the debris and assessing the damage and attempting to find out the cause of the fire,” said Berringer.
Hydro and water have been restored to the hotel and Union Gas was on site to ensure that any gas connections to the kitchen were off while the fire crews conducted their investigation Monday.
A hotel staff member told Dougall Media reporters that hotel management had no comment.
