Lake Louise’s beloved Charleston Residence goes up in flames

Late Tuesday afternoon, smoke could still be seen from the Charleston Residence, a building housing 170 employees of the Lake Louise Ski Resort.

It went up in flames Monday afternoon; everyone got out safely but the building was destroyed — putting their future, and the future of tourists planning to visit, into question.

It was home for Thomas Zimmerman, here from Ontario with plans to make Alberta home in the future, he’d already spent a few summers working in the area.

Thomas Zimmerman the day before a fire destroyed Lake Louise’s Charleston Residence, where he was living. (Courtesy Nicola Wolters)

“He was in the building,” said Nicola Wolters, Zimmerman’s mother. “He was actually — from what I understand, he would’ve been sleeping, would’ve been in his room at that point.”

Like so many of the 170 workers, all of his belongings were in the residence.

“He got out with a t-shirt, shorts, his shoes and his phone. His passport is there, all his ID, wallet — everything — his bikes, he had his truck,” she said.

Generations of memories built within those walls, the end of an era for a building fondly nicknamed ‘Chucktown’.

“Sometimes you feel like you’re almost living in neverland, you never grow up,” said Brenna Spademan, who lived in the Charleston Residence for many years. “You’re always on holiday there, you’re living in Lake Louise.”

“It would be so tough — like you’d lose everything whether you were just there for a season or you might’ve been there for a few years and built up a lot of stuff,” she added. “If you’re a skier or snowboarder you probably lost all of your gear and that isn’t cheap to replace.”

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A lot of workers come from outside the country to work at the resort, many have lost important documents like visas or passports.

“A lot of people from around the world will have lost some documentation,” said Lake Louise Ski Resort director of communications Dan Markham. “We’ve got support services that are not only providing psychological counselling, but there are facilities in the community to help people get their passports, get their paperwork, get phones, get access to online and the internet so they can talk to their families, let them know they’re doing okay.”

The resort says it is in contact with tourists who had bookings in the area, as it is temporarily shutting down to deal with the fire.

“The community of Lake Louise has been supportive of it, we’re gonna have to rebuild it, we will rebuild it,” Markham added. “We will make sure that we’re back in business so those folks have jobs to go back to.”