BARABOO (WKOW) -- A Baraboo motel is in ruins after a massive fire ripped through it Thursday evening, leaving two families without a place to stay.
Video shared by a viewer shows flames coming from the main cabin at the Log Lodge Motel.
Baraboo firefighters tell 27 News they responded just after 5 p.m. and arrived to find the building ablaze. With the help of a number of other departments, they were able to knock down the main fire within about half an hour.
No one was hurt.
The building sustained heavy fire, smoke and water damage, and no one can stay there right now.
Two families were staying inside at the time. The Sauk County Chapter of the Salvation Army is helping each find housing right now.
The owner lives in a building right next to the cabin, and he and his wife jumped into action quickly.
"Room 25, we started to see smoke and before we knew it, it was just pouring out of there," said Caroline Swalheim. "And Roberto came to me and said, 'Get the people out and get some water.' We didn't have a hose, so he grabbed a bucket, but it was past that. I knocked at both the rooms and got the people outside."
Robert and Patricia Alexander were staying in one of the units, just getting in Wednesday from the Milwaukee area. They were both asleep and say their service dogs barking saved their lives -- but their belongings and their car was consumed by the flames.
"All of the sudden we hear our dogs barking and I hear someone banging on the door," Robert Alexander said. "I couldn't go in and get my keys... Good thing the dogs were barking or we wouldn't have woken up."
They had just moved into a new room Thursday after heat issues in a different room Wednesday night. They were just planning to stay for the weekend.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by Baraboo Fire Department and Sauk County Sheriff’s Department.
More at WKOW 27 News