Fire at the Richmond Inn Best Western, Sept 22, 2005 - (details from the fire!)

The Beginning of our Golf Pro-Am Road Trip! 

Our Kelowna Pro-Am golf team left early Thursday morning from Westbank (running ½ hour late, to be expected from 4 women).  Sue Wolfe (Enderby), Jodee Smith (Okanagan Centre), Rhonda Poullos (Peachland) and myself (Westbank) were to meet at my house 7 am. 

Jodee (our driver) rolls up about 7:20 am, we load the vehicle and away we go down the connecter, filled with excitement looking forward to our event today in Richmond.  Little did we know the golf event would just be the beginning of our adventure. 

       Jodee drives                 Sue & Rhonda in the back seat.

We allowed for 4 hours to get to the golf course, none of us were truly convinced the directions we had were the fastest.  But we stuck to the plan, as it turns out, they probably were not and ended up getting to the Quilcheana event 2 minutes before my “Professional” meeting at 12 noon to explain the rules and format.

Our team was ready, pizza in hand for the 12:30 pm shotgun start.  Second group on the 16^th hole. 

We can give you the details later, but for now let’s jump ahead to the finish of our day.  Eight birdies, one bogey and the rest pars gave us a tie for first place of the second annual BMO Financial Group Charity Women’s Pro-Am. 

We tied with teams lead by former LPGA tour players Gail Graham and Jennifer Wyatt.  So our team was pretty darn excited.  Although we ended up getting the 3^rd place prize, we knew our score tied them which was good enough for us!

To our amusement, the trophy’s we all received were inscribed with the 3^rd place of the Canadian Women’s Open.  We all thought this was worth it!  Good stories for our future. 

Our Team, Sue, MJ, Rhonda, Tara and Jodee

Still we did not know what was in store for us later in the day.

The tournament wound down about 10 pm as we all left the parking lot.  I was the D.D. and had fun with Jodee’s SUV as it was a standard, which I had not driven for years.  With no difficulty we made it to the hotel, The Richmond Inn, Best Western. 

They had been advertising on the radio in Kelowna about the “New Richmond Inn, Best Western Reno Sale”, so booked our rooms the night before.

At The Richmond Inn, Best Western Thursday, Sept. 22

We checked in, parking the vehicle just outside the front entrance. My credit card to my complete surprise was denied.  It had tons of room on the card for purchases.  I thought it was weird, I asked her to try it again.  Same answer, “sorry but your card is not accepting the charge. “.  Was this a sign of what was to come? Very Strange!

Okay, shaking my head, I then asked Sue.  "Would you mind securing the rooms with your card?"  So Sue used her card, rooms 352 and 354.  Away we went. 

Jodee and Rhonda went together with the vehicle to park it closer to the rooms in the North Tower.  Sue and I followed the bell boy up to our rooms.  As we were going down the long corridor to get to the north tower, I noticed a room filled with cardboard boxes.  It was the stairway room surrounded by glass to head up to the second floor of the two story section of the hotel which was connecting the North Tower to the rest of the hotel.

I thought, sure we received a room rate special “the Reno’s Sale” due to the area of the hotel getting upgraded, but this was pretty tacky.  I questioned (to myself) was this done intentionally as a marketing display? Or was it just laziness of getting rid of the boxes?

The elevator was right next to this room, as we all crammed into it with our 4 sets of clubs, bags and the bell boy.

We arrived at the third floor, pretty exhausted and ready to relax.  It had been an exceptional day as a team, ironically all wearing our red/black team uniforms.

Sue and I with the assistance of the bell boy, put all the equipment in our room until the other girls arrived.  They came in minutes later and grabbed their gear and went into their room.  Of course we had to check out each others rooms, we were pretty happy.  Rhonda and I were looking forward to getting into the hot tub while Sue got into her PJ’s.

As Sue had changed, I was busy unpacking and getting my wallet, clothes and belonging organized.  I thought I was missing some stuff, but decided to give my husband a call to let him know how we did and find out if he knew anything about my credit card being denied. Sue was content in her PJ’s and getting ready for bed. 

Rhonda and Jodee were unpacking in their room.  Rhonda gave her family a call to chat. 

Jodee shortly after, entered into our room telling us Rhonda was busy talking with her daughter, so she wanted a visit us for a while. 

The fire began! 11:00 pm Thursday, Sept. 22

Jodee said “hey, I’ll show you where I parked the truck.”  We went out to the balcony and it was directly below parked 50 yards away against the back of the lot. 

“Perfect, good spot” I said.

We looked around for a minute and started to head back into the room.  Sue was by our entrance door unpacking her stuff and she said, “Hey, is that the fire alarm?”  I could not hear anything, but Jodee did and said “Yeah, I think so?”

We heard this “Ding…………………Ding……………………Ding…………..” nothing to panic about, but I did smell smoke.

In the mean time, Rhonda is talking with her daughter and was asking her daughter to listen to this bell chiming. “What is it?” her daughter replies through the phone, “sounds like church bells” 

I ran back onto the patio, came back in to tell the girls I thought I could smell smoke.  All of a sudden we began to hear big crashes, sounding like breaking glass.  Jodee and I ran back onto the patio, could not see anything but heard, BIG CRASHES!  Sue was close behind to join us on the patio.

To me it sounded like someone had a baseball bat and was wildly hitting the glass from other patio’s which we could not see.  A man was walking along the parking lot at this time with a set of clubs on his back, heading towards us.  He was about 150 yard away. 

Jodee shouted down “hey, what’s going on over there?  What the noise all about?”

He walked a little farther and finally could see the commotion, “Fire, Fire, Fire,” he shouted as he pointed just below us and to our left (which we could not see) "Get out, Get out, Get out!".

“Holy shit, man we have to get out” Jodee said, as she bee lined to go tell Rhonda to get off the phone and go!

I knew then, my god, it was all those boxes, crap, it’s gonna be bad. I stared down over the edge of our patio, thought we could escape over the balcony with sheets.  It could work for a last resort, thinking broken legs would be better than dying.   I quickly returned back into our room.

Sue asks, “What should I take?”  Staring at the floor I thought; Shoes, Purse, Camera, Sweater.  It took me less than 5 seconds and I was running for the door. “Get your shoes on Sue, let’s go!”

Sue at this time was still walking slowly, the magnitude of the fire had not sunken in for her.  Although she had been with me walking up to the room, she did not notice the cardboard box filled rooms we passed on the way up.  She was not thinking of the seriousness and how close it was to us.  She was in her PJ’s, but still did not seem to feel rushed. 

I figured I would check our other escape options while waiting for her.

Our nearest exit was right beside our rooms, however I knew the fire was right beside us too.  It was definitely not my first choice.  I ran as fast as I could to the other end of the building to the other fire exit (in my 50 yard dash record time) where I thought the safest escape would be.  People began to stick their heads out their room doors, as I ran, I shouted "a fire, it’s real, get out". 

I opened the exit door, a huge black smoke cloud entered the hallway, filled my lungs.  I immediately shut the door and began to cough. Oh my god!  It’s too late to get out this exit.  Shit, maybe the fire’s bigger than I thought. Again, I am thinking of where the fire was (on our side of the building) and it was already too dangerous to chance going into the black smoke ridden fire exit on the far side of the building.

Okay, now I’m really scared.

Running as fast as possible back to the girls, I passed more people opening there room doors, peaking out.  I could hardly say a word; my lungs were choked with the smoke I had just inhaled.  I just kept running, thinking, we may not be able to leave the building except over the balcony.   Not wanting to jump just yet especially from a room that was so close to the fire, I felt total fear and panic!

Sue could see it all over my face.  As I tried to say “Oh God, we’ve got to get out of here – NOW!”   Sue looks up, as she is still wondering if we could take our golf clubs with us.  “Just leave the clubs, they can be replaced, we have to get out!” I tried to say, coughing and choking in between words.

Rhonda just came out of her room to see the look of terror on my face.  She had no idea of where the fire was but realized, it must be pretty bad – let’s go!  She looked up to see the exit sign, following it towards the fire exit on our side of the building (by the fire).  She felt the door for heat and opened it.

In this split second, the fear of fire and smoke raised my adrenaline even more.  There was no heat or smoke.  I knew the fire was right there, just maybe we had a chance to get out this way.  I immediately followed Rhonda, Sue followed me and a few other hotel guests followed us.  Jodee however, also knowing of the fire location came running out of her room after changing into jeans and chose to investigate the far exit as I had just done seconds before. 

“Jodee, no" I shouted, "You can’t get out that way”. I looked back at her as we descended down the stairs.  She did not believe me, so she ran as fast as she could to the far end.  She found the same deadly results I did.  Black smoke filled the exit stairway.

Immediately Jodee turned around and ran as fast as she could to catch up to us.

The stairway was bright, cement walls around the stairwell were painted a very light cream.  It was a matter of seconds for our decent to reach the first floor exit. 

We arrived in a corridor about 10 feet wide, by the elevators, a pop machine and ice machine. 

As we rounded a corner running towards the final exit door to the outside, we passed the double doors, directly beside the fire.  Flames were shooting out the bottom of the door about a foot long.  The raging blaze was just on the other side. 

The final exit door to the outside was just past the flaming fire doors by only three feet.

Rhonda swings open the door to find a fiery blaze in front of us.  The flames were shooting out 3 to 5 feet directly ahead.  The only thing protecting us was the exit fire door in which Rhonda just opened.  Within a split second pause, Rhonda hesitated.  We all could not believe our eyes.

Sue’s frightened voice behind me, shouted “I don’t want to go, there’s flames.  It’s not safe”

There was a small window of opportunity, about 2 to 3 feet of no flames because of the fire door, I immediately began to shout, “GO, GO, GO, GO, GO…………”  We all ran past the flames with an intense adrenaline rush, running for another 50 meters to the other side of the parking lot. 

The three of us stood, looking at each other, “oh my god, where’s Jodee?”  Looking back at the flames burning by the now closed door we just ran through, it all seems surreal.  Jodee was not behind us. 

Sue began to move towards the building “we have to go get her”.  “No way Sue, we can’t go back in, there is no way we can go in the way we came out” I said, thinking that Jodee would find her way out through the last resort of over the balcony.  But there was no way we should go back in the building.

We all stood there as if the next 30 seconds was like a few hours.  Long enough to think of the worse.  We were all so frightened. 

Then, Jodee burst open the door and wearing her red shirt ran full speed towards us as we were shouting “Jodeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” 

When she came to a stop beside us, the relief was immeasurable.  You could just imagine hearing the Mission Impossible theme song as we all just looked at each other and unanimously decided, “let’s get the hell out of here”, and all dashed for Jodee's SUV.  We all jumped in, Jodee began to honk the horn to help make noise to wake any people up and ensure the 30 bystanders would not get in her way as we left the parking lot.  Jodee drove out of the parking lot and crossed the street.  Parking far enough away not to get in the way of the fire trucks when they arrive. 

We all got out; Sue in her PJ’s was really going into shock, feeling very cold and scared.  I immediately phone our 5th team member MJ, who was staying at friends place and had planned to pick me up the next morning to travel back to Kelowna.  I left a message for her, “we would not be at the hotel because it is burning down, and we will call back.  We are all okay.” 

Jodee called her boyfriend, not believing her as Rhonda and I began to laugh hysterically in the background.  We just could not believe what just happened.  Then the fire trucks began to arrive with blaring sirens, this immediately proved Jodee's story was real.  Rhonda and I then phoned home as more fire trucks arrived.  Three eventually came with about a dozen ambulances.  

We were all pretty freaked out and none of us really wanted to go near the hotel.    We thought it might be a good idea to find a place to sit down, a nearby local pub.  We all hopped into Jodee's car, I drove.  As we began to drive, the police had begun to block off the streets.  I asked a police officer where we should go, if we were in the fire.  He suggested into the front parking lot of the hotel. 

None of us really wanted to go back, but I pulled into the lot, parking in a taxi spot.  We just sat there for a minute.  “Let’s get out, see what we should do” Sue suggested.  We were all pretty reluctant to move.  We sat there for a minute and Jodee said “let just go find a pub, to sit down, have a drink and unwind.  We are all stressed and uninjured.  Best not to get in peoples way who really need help”

We all agreed. I drove down the street and we stopped at a neighboring hotel pub called, BB’s.

At BB’s Pub, Happy to have escaped the fire unharmed!

We hooked up with MJ, who had called us back and her friends welcomed us to stay with them. 

We eventually called the police to let them know our names and we all got out okay.

The next morning, at Elaine & Ernie’s home.

Friends of MJ, our other team member.

Returning the next day after a good breakfast at the White Spot, we found our belongings at the hotel literally untouched with minimal smoke damage.  As were escorted by some lovely firefighters, it was amazing to think the exit we escaped from was so close to the raging fire.

Our escape route, the next day!  Sue stands with her pillow and Mark carries Tara’s golf clubs.

It was no doubt the cement and fire doors save us from real damage and possible loss of life. 

Many people on the second floor opened their doors and went into the deadly smoke filled hallway. 

Rhonda is pretty happy to be safe standing by Mark our Fireman!

                      Tara safe with firemen Kevin & Mark!    Ready to go home, all in one piece.

Lesson’s to be learned of this tragedy! Cement and good fire doors can protect you, do not enter area’s with black smoke, be very quick to respond to a fire bell, know where your exits are and where they lead you to, stay within the first 10 floors or your fireman may not be able to get you, always feel the door for heat of the fire before you open it!

A very sad tragedy.  If everyone stayed in their rooms, we may have all been safe today.  There were about 35 people treated for smoke inhalation and two travelers did not survive the deadly smoke.  Our deepest sympathy goes out to the family's and friends of these loved ones.  More Details!

I now realize our team had a herd of angels getting us out to safety.  There are lessons from this event and I am sure as the years unfold, we will see how our lessons here can save us or others from possible injury in the future.  I will be taking first aid and fire safety this winter!

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  Our Okanagan Team Before the Fire! And below, our team After the fire!

Quick pit stop at Merritt, almost home!

It was an amazing experience, we shall always remember.  We shared a team effort throughout the whole day which brought us much closer as caring individuals through teamwork, fun & great trauma.

It is one for our scrap books!

Written by Tara Roden, September of 2005