By Vicky Wedig
Editor
Combustible structures that hold together a stone fireplace at Lake Lawn Resort caught fire Saturday morning.
Firefighters were called to the resort at 11:10 Saturday morning for fire “where there shouldn’t have been” in the gas fireplace, said Delavan police and fire Chief Tim O’Neill.
The fireplace is a large stone structure in the main lobby and the Frontier dining room of the resort, O’Neill said. He said the entire stone structure was heated to more than 100 degrees, and combustible materials – lathe or wood – used to hold the large river rocks together when the fireplace was built were on fire. He said combustible surfaces within the rock structure were burning, and the wood inside the mantle was burning. The department also had to open up part of the roof around the chimney.
“It could have been serious because the entire structure was heated up, and there was smoke and flames behind the rocks,” O’Neill said.
The dining room was evacuated and closed until about 5 p.m. Saturday, he said.
Rather than tearing all of the stone from the fireplace to access the fire, firefighters were able to use thermal imaging equipment to detect hot spots and remove the stone only in those places, O’Neill said.
He said firefighters are not sure of the cause of the fire, but O’Neill said he suspects the materials of the gas fireplace deteriorated over the years to the point of becoming combustible.
“It’s generally a years-long process that causes situation like this,” he said.
O’Neill said the fireplace stone was still cooling Monday – two days after the fire.
