WESTLOCK – The Old Timers Cabin, one of Westlock’s noted historic buildings located on the Westlock Agricultural Society’s property on the west side of town just off the Old Pickardville Road, was gutted by an overnight fire Jan. 31 that RCMP have deemed suspicious.
Standing in front of the fire-ravaged building just after 9 a.m. Tuesday with the smell of burned wood still hanging in the air, Town of Westlock fire chief Stuart Koflick said around 4 a.m. they were dispatched to the site after passersby saw smoke coming from the structure — along with the town, Westlock County fire crews also pitched in to fight the blaze. The southeast corner of the building, which is where the front door and steps are, suffered the majority of the damage.
“We made an interior attack and had the fire under control in under a half hour and then spent the rest of the morning making sure all the hot spots were cold,” said the chief.
Koflick said they’ll now begin their investigation into the blaze, while Westlock RCMP were also on site with Cpl. Riley Sutherland saying via e-mail that the fire, which they’ve deemed suspicious, appears to have started between 2:30 to 3:30 a.m. and they’ve “interviewed the witnesses that called it in and are working with the fire department.”
For context, the building is only open to the public during the annual ag fair, last held in August 2022, and was not connected to power.
“The next step will be to conduct our investigation using our process to determine the cause and origin. We’re required to determine the cause and origin for all fires but there are some indicators, the pieces of the puzzle, that will allow us to probably eliminate certain things at this time,” said Koflick. “It’s a parallel investigation going on between the two agencies (fire and police) and there may be a third, as I understand this is an insured building so the insurance company may send in an investigator as well.”
According to past reporting by the Westlock News, the cabin was an old food booth on the fairgrounds before volunteers decided to renovate it around 1951 and put it to a different use. During the 2019 fair, the last before the event went on pause for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Westlock and District Old Timers Association celebrated its 100th anniversary with a cake cutting during their tea-and-biscuits event in the little cabin that’s been on the ag grounds since 2011 — previously, the building was located in Mountie Park.
The story of the association goes back to 1919, when a collection of early pioneers to the area formed the Pioneer Association “to provide a meeting place to honour the settlers each year, visit and reminisce about good times” while in 1938 the name was changed to the Westlock and District Old Timers Association.
