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LAURENTIAN VALLEY — The old Sleepy Haven Motel at the intersection of Pembroke Street East and Drive-In Road is no more after fire swept through the structure Sunday morning. The motel had been closed for some time, electricity had been cut off, and it was considered an abandoned building. Someone who had been squatting inside the hotel safely exited the building and was outside when the fire department arrived.
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Speaking to the Pembroke Observer and News on Monday, Township of Laurentian Valley Fire Chief Tim Sutcliffe said they received the call about the fire around 5:22 am on April 28.
He said when fire fighters arrived at the scene, the motel was already fully engulfed in flames. Sutcliffe explained the motel had a sort-of double ceiling resulting in cavity between the ceiling and the roof and once the fire got in there, it quickly spread throughout the whole structure.
“It was too dangerous, I wasn’t sending anyone in there. And you couldn’t fight it from above so that’s why we brought in the high hoe to tear it down,” the fire chief explained.
Using the high hoe to bring the building down and pulling it apart allowed the fire fighters to extinguish the flaming rubble.
In all, 17 fire fighters brought the fire under control in about two hours, but fire fighters were on scene for roughly eight hours ensuring that the smoldering and smoking debris was fully extinguished.
Sutcliffe said the cause of the fire is currently unknown.
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