Telkwa Hotel Fire

The Telkwa Hotel burned to the ground at 2 PM on a Tuesday, June 3, 1930. The loss was $40,000, and it was the only hotel in town.

Robert Michael Burns, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1875, was the proprietor of the Telkwa Hotel in 1916. He was 33 when he married Charlotte McDonell in Victoria in 1908. Charlotte's father, Ronald J. McDonell, was known as the "King of Saloon Keepers" and owned the Northern Hotel in New Hazelton in 1914. Charlotte's brother, William S. McDonell, operated the Telkwa Hotel in 1911 but died that same year in Hazelton at age 22. After his death, Charlotte and her husband, Robert, took over the hotel.

Charlotte herself passed away in Victoria in 1920 at the age of 35. Her wedding to Robert was private because her brother had recently died. There was also a James MacDonell, age 19, who died in Hazelton in 1911.

In 1911, a Lea H. McDonell was listed as a hotel keeper here in Telkwa. Charlotte's mother, Mary Jones, wife of Ronald J. McDonell, died in British Columbia in 1897 at age 36. Another of Charlotte's brothers was George Henry McDonell, born in Victoria in 1883.

At the time of the fire, the hotel was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Slavin. Everyone in Telkwa was at a picnic at Round Lake when the fire happened, and the hotel had just been renovated.