A building was found burned to the ground Sunday morning at a YMCA facility on Bear Island Lake. The building was located at what was previously Timber Wolf Lodge. The YMCA of the North purchased that and an adjacent resort and combined them.
The Babbitt, Morse-Fall Lake and Ely fire departments were paged out around 7:20 a.m. Sunday. Upon arriving on the scene the Babbitt Fire Department found the building to be a total loss and cancelled the Ely department.
The YMCA issued a statement Sunday afternoon:
"We experienced a fire overnight in the Orion building at Camp Northern Lights, which serves as housing for our leadership development program participants and our main kitchen. No one was in the building during the fire and we are grateful that everyone is physically safe. We are also thankful for the response and assistance of local fire departments," said Michel Tigan, vice president of adventure and camp operations.
"Our team is working through solutions to the challenges posed by this situation and we are making preparations for adapting to continue to serve our camp families. We are directly contacting all affected participants and families to work through specific details," said Tigan. "We appreciate our community’s ongoing support of Camp Northern Lights."