Investigators rule out arson in Mt. Olympus fire

- Investigators have conclusively excluded arson as a cause of a fire Feb 14, 2018 at Mt. Olympus Resort in the Wisconsin Dells.

The investigation was conducted in the days following the fire by the Lake Delton Police Department, Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the ATF.

Additional resources had been requested by the Lake Delton Police Department from DCI and ATF, according to a Lake Delton Fire Department news release.

The only fire in recently determined to be intentionally set was on Jan. 25, 2018 of a dorm building under construction at the Wilderness.

A $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whomever is responsible for that fire is still being offered and that case remains under investigation. 

http://www.wkow.com/story/37539913/2018/02/19/breaking-fire-demolishes-building-at-mt-olympus-theme-park

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UPDATE (WKOW) -- Authorities are investigating a fire at another resort in the Wisconsin Dells area.

It happened early Feb. 14, 2018 in a building at Mt. Olympus. It comes just three weeks after a fire broke out at the Wilderness Resort. Since the two fires happened at big resorts in a travel destination in just a few weeks of each other, federal investigators are back in Lake Delton looking into the fire at Mt. Olympus.

The fire broke out just before 4 a.m., destroying a maintenance building. Officials say the fire didn't spread and no one was hurt, but it caused $1.2 million in damage. 

Nearly three weeks ago, a massive fire broke out at Wilderness Resort just down the road, destroying a building still under construction. Federal investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined that fire was arson."There's nothing indicating that they are related at this time, however, it's definitely something we want to look into," ATF Public Information Officer Ashlee Sherrill told 27 News. "There’s just a lot of similarities when you're looking at both of these are resorts, they're large structure fires, so there could be some overlap."

Delton Fire Chief Darren Jorgenson says it's been a busy few weeks for the department. He's thankful no one was hurt in either incident and the fires didn't spread to other parts of the resorts. His team will continue trying to figure out what happened in both cases.  "We look at every incident as if it's a possible crime, so we go through all of the evidence very methodically, carefully and do the best that we can to come up with an answer to what caused the fire," Jorgenson told 27 News.

Authorities are still asking anyone with information on these incidents to contact investigators at ATF. You can call 1-888-ATF-FIRE or email atftips@atf.org.********UPDATE (WKOW) -- Mt. Olympus Theme Park released a statement regarding the fire at a maintenance building overnight.

At 3:55 a.m., we were notified that a standalone maintenance building located behind the water and theme park was on fire. The Lake Delton Fire Department was on the scene within minutes. The building is a total loss.

There are no injuries and no one was near the shop at the time.

There is no disruption to operations of the resort, water park, or theme park. Operations are running normal.

We’ll now let the fire department do its work in determining a cause.

Thank you,MtO Management

The Delton Fire Department says the single story steel building was fully involved with fire when they arrived around 3:55 a.m. Wednesday, February 14. Crews had the fire under control in about an hour and there was no damage to buildings nearby. The maintenance building had several vehicles and utility-type machines inside. 

The Delton Fire Department, Lake Delton Police Department and Department of Criminal Investigations are looking into the cause of the fire. 

Several surrounding agencies responded to help fight the fire.


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