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Fire destroys historic mountain lodge

SNOQUALMIE PASS, Wash., May 13 (UPI) -- Fire has destroyed a mountain climbing training "icon" -- the Snoqualmie Lodge in Washington's Cascade Mountains, a report said Saturday.

It took firefighters 40 minutes to lay 2,500 feet of hose up a snow-covered trail to the Friday blaze. A cause had not been determined.

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"It was pretty much to the ground when we got up here," Snoqualmie Pass, Wash., Fire and Rescue Lt. Judy Heyer told the Seattle Times.

A Seattle-based group, The Mountaineers, owns the 77-acre site and lodge, which volunteers rebuilt in 1948 following a 1944 blaze.

"It's been our training center for five decades and now it's been completely wiped away," Steve Costie, the group's executive director told the newspaper. "It's left a real hole for me. An icon is gone."

Ironically, the lodge with a recently updated fire alarm system was to be opened to the public for the first time this summer.

Snoqualmie Lodge was not insured because it is so remote, said the Seattle group, which plans to take up its future in June.

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