Firefighters battle blaze in bitter cold in Door County

DOOR COUNTY (WITI) -- A tough break Monday, December 30th for the owners of a Door County bed and breakfast at the end of the year. A fire broke out at the Ephraim Inn -- and firefighters had to fight the cold, along with the fire.

Flames shot through the roof of the two-story bed and breakfast as firefighters worked to control the blaze.

Video of the blaze was captured by the Ephraim Volunteer Fire Department.

Firefighters say the bitterly cold temperatures made it even harder to fight the flames.

"That was a wind chill of 20 below this morning and thank God, the wind went down or we'd been froze up more than we are," Ephraim Fire Chief Niles Weborg said.

Weborg says water had to be pumped from the bay or trucked in, as the village doesn't have fire hydrants. It took firefighters about an hour to knock down the blaze, even with the help of seven other fire departments.

"We saved two-thirds of the building. Pretty much we can say it was in the 'b-side' of the building," Weborg said.

That's firefighters speak for the location of the fire, on the left side and rear of the building.

Weborg says about 10 units in the building are damaged. A dollar estimate for the damage isn't known.

No one was injured in the fire, but the inn was closed for the season.

The owners do live in the building - but were out of town for the weekend.

Weborg says right now, there's no definitive cause as to what started the fire, but says it doesn't appear to be suspicious.

Door County records show the Ephraim Inn was builtin 1985. It's assessed at almost $2 million.