Restaurant on Mt. Baldy Ski Slope Destroyed by Fire

Mt. Baldy’s ski slope restaurant burned to the ground Monday after a power failure prevented volunteer firefighters from reaching the scene by ski lift and employees were unable to extinguish the blaze with snow-making equipment.

The hourlong mid-morning fire erupted in the Top of the Notch’s kitchen, said Sharon Hoyle, manager of the adjacent ski rental shop and one of the dozen or so employees who were in the 5,000-square-foot restaurant.

No injuries were reported. Although the Top of the Notch was open for business, no customers were inside at the time.

San Bernardino County Fire Department officials estimated total damage at about $1 million.

‘Kind of Terrible’

“It was kind of terrible,” Hoyle said.

The flames burned power lines and the volunteer fire department for the San Gabriel Mountains resort did not get there “until the fire really got going,” she said.

“We used the snow-making equipment, but the flames were too big,” Hoyle said.

Tom Barnes, the dispatcher for the state Department of Forestry and the San Bernardino County Fire Department, was notified of the fire just before 10 a.m. He said about a dozen state and Mt. Baldy volunteer firefighters finally were taken by helicopter to the fire scene, “but it (the restaurant) was pretty much on the ground when we got there.”

The restaurant was at the top of the lower ski lift that rises from the main Baldy area. The upper ski lift begins at the restaurant area.

Barnes said hoses and nozzles were also carried up by helicopter but were not compatible with the snow-making equipment, and “there was no way to connect our hoses to their water.” It was not until early afternoon, he said, that “some sort of hydrant or water source was dug out of the snow.”

Nothing But Ruins’

By that time, the one-story restaurant was nothing but smoldering ruins.

Hoyle said she was told that the flames erupted in the flue above the kitchen stove area, spreading through the interior for half an hour or so before “it really got started.” The cause of the fire was under investigation.