Fay hut

Fay hut
Location of the hut in British Columbia
General information
Type	alpine hut
Architectural style	Log cabin
Location	Prospectors Valley
Country	Canada
Coordinates	51°15′45″N 116°12′29″W / 51.26250°N 116.20806°W / 51.26250; -116.20806
Opened	Original: 1927 (1927) Rebuild: 2005 (2005)
Destroyed	Original: 2003 (2003) forest fire Rebuild: 2009 (2009) structure fire
Owner	Alpine Club of Canada
Technical details
Material	Wood
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Alpine Club of Canada
Website
www.alpineclubofcanada.ca/facility/fay.html

The Fay hut was an alpine hut located above Prospectors Valley in Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. Although the higher Neil Colgan hut superseded it as a base for climbs in the Valley of the Ten Peaks area, it still served as a convenient base for hikers and skiers doing day trips in the area, and as an overnight stop for mountaineers continuing on to the Neil Colgan hut. A new hut was built in 2005 to replace the original Fay hut, which was destroyed by a forest fire in 2003. The Fay hut was maintained by the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC).^[1]

The new Fay Hut was destroyed by a building structure fire in April 2009. It was unoccupied at the time. The last occupants left at 11 am on April 2. The next group came in on April 4 and found the building burned to the ground. The most likely cause was the ignition of the roof material caused by pyrolysis of the wooden components from leaking hot exhaust gases from the wood fireplace. The last occupants at the hut were using the fireplace and the fire occurred shortly after the last occupants had left the hut. The solid foam plastic insulation in the attic likely contributed to a hot fast fire dripped down in burning streams to the floors below.^[2] All that was left of the building was the metal from the roof, lying on the ground. The hut was not insured and was underutilized, so it is unlikely it will be rebuilt again.^[3]