Home to strange twins, spooky visitors, and a person with an axe Jack Nicholson, the Overlook Hotel plays a significant role in The Shining.
Now, the actual Oregon hotel where the 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie adaptation of the famous Stephen King novel was recorded has caught fire in a major way.
On Thursday evening, the historic Timberline Lodge was engulfed in flames while guests were sleeping inside, but fortunately nobody was harmed.
Four different fire departments responded to the remote location in the town of Government Camp, which is about 60 miles east of Portland.
Around 9:30pm, the top floor of the iconic building caught fire, and it took about two hours to bring it under control due to strong winds blowing away the sprayed water.
The staff called for emergency help and got everyone out safely while trying to rescue any historical items.
John Burton, the lodge’s marketing director, told a local newspaper The Oregonian that he appreciated the fire crews and said that this unexpected fire was a unique event for the famous hotel.
‘I think we just need to look at this as it could have been much worse,’ he said. ‘It was extremely windy, so it didn’t help the cause, but [I] can’t thank the first responders enough.’
The fire mostly affected the top floor and roof of the building, and Burton suggested that embers in the chimney might have been the cause, though this has not been confirmed.
One guest, Taylor Hatmaker, told the newspaper how they heard an alarm and saw sparks around the chimney when they were outside.
She said: ‘It’s emotional to see something so symbolic of our state with such history on fire. It’s such a historic, special building.
‘Timberline means a lot of things to a lot of people.’
The Timberline Lodge was used as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel as well as some interior scenes, although many scenes were shot at Elstree Studios.
An imaginary room 237 was used for filming since the hotel owners were concerned that using the real room 217 would scare away potential guests.
Nevertheless, the featured room in King’s novel is actually the most requested one by fans hoping to experience what Nicholson and Shelley Duvalldid.
However, it also has a remarkable history as it was opened by then-US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977, drawing nearly 2,000,000 visitors every year.
The blaze was tackled by four fire crews.
