Restaurant fire at Auberge Mt. Orford

CTV Montreal: Fire at Mont Orford Inn A fire at Auberge Mont Orford appears to have started in the restaurant

Officials are investigating the cause of a fire at the Mont Orford Inn in Magog overnight.

Dozens of firefighters rushed to the Mont Orford Inn overnight when the building caught fire around 3:30 a.m.

The fire appears to have begun in the restaurant, which shares a building with the administrative office.

Manaushka Ross, co-director of the Inn, said an overnight employee spotted smoke.

"He said that when he heard the alarm there was smoke in the restaurant, that's where he saw smoke," said Ross.

She was woken in the middle of the night by the hotel's alarm company.

"I asked them if they'd spoken to my employee because we have somebody here overnight to look after the hotel and they said not really, we just send the fire people. So I called my employee and they said there's smoke in the restaurant," Ross said, and she immediately drove to the Inn.

"I live about five kilometres from here, so ten minutes later I was here. I just saw the smoke, there was no fire or anything like that."

About 40 people staying at the Inn had to evacuate their rooms overnight, with Ross saying that everyone was accounted for and nobody was injured.

Judith Borlase was visiting the Inn from California, she says everyone remained calm.

"People were moving to the door, and we were directed to move outside," said Borlase.

Although their rooms were not damaged, accommodations have been found for them at nearby hotels.

"It's hard to find a place overnight because all the hotels, they have nobody on site, like we don't have any hotel where it's open 24 hours," said Ross.

One guest told CTV News that he grabbed a fire extinguisher on his way outside and saw smoke coming from the back of the restaurant.

Firefighters from several municipalities responded to the call for help and were able to contain and eventually extinguish the flames after a few hours.

Around 8 a.m. a crane arrived to demolish the damaged Restaurant Comme Chez Soi, and to prevent the fire from spreading.

While there is an office in the main building for the hotel, most of the administrative duties happen in the building shared with the restaurant.

"All the administration of the hotel, the offices are above the restaurant, so my office is upstairs there," said Ross, standing in front of the demolished building which held all the hotel records.

Mont Orford Inn remains closed because of smoke and water damage.

All 40 guests have been relocated to nearby hotels.