David Colburn
LAKE VERMILION- An alert guest and the quick actions of staff, guests and emergency responders averted a major disaster when a fire broke out early Sunday at the Life of Riley Resort on Norwegian Bay. Even so, they couldn’t keep four buildings devoted to guest services from burning to the ground.
“The guests first saw the fire at about 1:10 in the morning,” owner Rock Gillson said on Tuesday. “It was in the gazebo, and he started to raise the ruckus as the fire burned through the building.”
As Cook Fire and Ambulance units, a Department of Natural Resources tanker, and others raced to the scene, resort staff and guests deployed two pumps in the lake that fed inch-and-a-half hoses that they used to try to buy some time.