Ski centre vows to open despite huge cafe blaze
A SKI centre will reopen today, only 48 hours after its cafe was destroyed in a fire.
The timber building at the Glencoe Mountain Resort was extensively damaged in the blaze on Christmas Day.
But the resort’s managing director, Andy Meldrum, yesterday said the centre would reopen to skiers and snowboarders today.
He said: ‘The main shell of the building is in a real state. We are just having to work around the challenges.
‘We have been open for snow sports for two weeks and it was going well.
‘But fortunately when this fire happened there was nobody on site. At the end of the day it is a building, thankfully there was nobody inside and there was no threat to life.
‘We are fully insured but I have no idea of the cost of the damage at this stage.
‘We are not certain of the cause but CCTV footage shows a problem with an electrical unit.’
Mr Meldrum added: ‘The cafe area is a write-off, but we think the ski hire part is salvageable, and the ticket office is intact.
‘The silver lining is that the ski infrastructure is fine, and the accommodation is fine. We’ll do what we always do in difficult times and keep going.’
Mr Meldrum said power and communications were the biggest difficulty and would prove a massive challenge to replace.
He added: ‘But this is a skiers’ mountain and as long as the snow conditions are good, they won’t stop coming.’
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said the alarm was raised at 4.40am on Christmas Day. Eight appliances responded to the blaze at the resort, just off the A82, which runs through Glen Coe. Firefighters used water from a nearby burn to fight the blaze.
A spokesman said: ‘No evacuation was required and there are no reported casualties.’