Fire breaks out at historic Oregon hotel used in ‘The Shining’
Officials said everyone made it out of the lodge safely
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A fire broke out Thursday night at an Oregon hotel that film fans may recognize from Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.”
Fire officials in Clackamas County said the fire broke out sometime before 9:30 p.m. in an attic of the Timberline Lodge, a historic Mount Hood hotel that served as the exterior for the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick’s 1980 thriller.
Fire crews from Clackamas, as well as Hoodland Fire, Gresham Fire and Estacada Fire, were all on the scene fighting the blaze, according to a press release from Clackamas Fire.
Just after 11 p.m., a Clackamas Fire spokesperson confirmed to NewsNation affiliate KOIN that no one was injured, and that the fire had been contained to the attic and the roof. Around that time, the department also confirmed on Twitter that the blaze was declared to be “under control.”
The fire was out shortly before 11:30 p.m., a spokesperson for the Timberline Lodge told KOIN. At the time, firefighters were continuing to extinguish any hotspots.
Timberline Lodge’s spokesperson also said all guests and employees were safe, having been evacuated from the hotel. Oregon State Police had also closed all roads near the lodge to allow for emergency vehicles.
The hotel is closed until further notice, Timberline Lodge wrote on social media. An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the blaze, but hotel officials say “it is suspected fireplace embers ignited the roof.”
The Timberline Lodge, which opened in 1938, has been used as a filming location for several film productions, including 1960’s “All the Young Men,” 1973’s “Lost Horizon,” and 1993’s “Hear No Evil,” according to IMDb. The 2019 film “Doctor Sleep,” which is based on Stephen King’s sequel to “The Shining,” also used the hotel for exterior shots.
As noted on the Timberline Lodge’s website, 1980’s “The Shining” used aerial and exterior footage of the hotel for establishing shots, though other exterior shots “such as those of the hedge maze and loading dock” were filmed at a studio in England.
During production, the hotel’s management also requested that Kubrick not mention Room 217 in the film (Stephen King’s book discussed Room 217 being haunted), so Kubrick instead used a different room number that doesn’t exist at Timberline — Room 237 — as a stand-in for the movie.
“However, Room 217 is requested more often than any other room at Timberline,:” the lodge writes on its website. “Rest assured, Timberline is not haunted!”