When they arrived, they found the entire building fully engulfed in flames.<\/p>\n
CAL FIRE says they were lucky to contain the fire before it became a wildfire.<\/p>\n
Snowline Saloon in Oakhurst burns down in large overnight fire (Courtesy: Gurpreet Singh)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
One firefighter was injured and taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released.<\/p>\n
Crews will remain on scene on Wednesday morning for any possible hazards and cleanup.<\/p>\n
The business had just recently opened its doors in July following renovations.<\/p>\n
Russell Papenhausen, who works across the street at Mountain Lodge Trail, says he spotted the flames and immediately called 911.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/07d0868c-0b24-4ae2-a2e1-1f4048e9692f-FORWEB12.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A photo of the witness who saw the flames from across the street of Snowline Saloon. (Photo: FOX26)<\/p>\n
\u201cI look over and I see engulfed flames, I heard an explosion,\u201d Papenhausen said. \u201cFrom there, I ran to the office got a cell phone, called Dispatch 911, notified them that there was a fire across the street at Snowline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Papenhausen says flames were already shooting from the back of the building when he ran over to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was flames already shooting up,\u201d he said. \u201cI ran over there and I saw the Harley, you know, moved the guy’s Harley…by then, the fire chief was already pulling up with their crews.\u201d<\/p>\n
Papenhausen says the fire began moving into nearby vegetation as firefighters worked to contain it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was slowly jumping over into the grass, and it started going down the hill already,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fire officials told FOX26 crews were able to contain the fire before it could spread farther. <\/p>\n
They confirm the fire did spread into nearby vegetation, burning about a quarter of an acre.<\/p>\n
Papenhausen also says the chief brought up that he had helped move a Harley out of harm’s way. <\/p>\n
He says the owner heard about it and thanked him for helping save the motorcycle.<\/p>\n
All the was left was ash and rubble. <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9b9e2c2f-6dfa-425b-8db0-c1db44e77d56-FORWEB11.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Snowline Saloon in Oakhurst was destroyed by an overnight fire, leaving the newly renovated business a total loss. (Photo: FOX26)<\/p>\n
And for longtime residents, seeing the building reduced to ash and rubble was devastating. <\/p>\n
They say the Snowline Saloon was part of Oakhurst\u2019s history and hope the business can make a comeback. <\/p>\n
Amy Stephens, who lives in Ahwahnee, drove to Oakhurst after hearing about the fire to see the damage for herself and take pictures for her mother. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/7024efc6-a09c-4c15-aef3-e68ab4def167-INTERVIEWEE2.JPG\")
<\/p>\n
A photo of a local devastated by the fire. (Photo: FOX26)<\/p>\n
Stephens says her grandfather helped build the historic building decades ago.<\/p>\n
She also has her own memories of the Snowline Saloon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve had great dinners there. I’ve taken friends to drinks there, played pool. We’ve had a great time there,\u201d Stephens said.<\/p>\n
Stephens says the recent renovations made the loss even harder to see. She feels for the business owner. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey just worked so hard to revamp the building and they did such a good job,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I just can’t believe that the building is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fire crews remained at the scene to address remaining hazards and hot spots.<\/p>\n
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADERA COUNTY, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Snowline Saloon in Oakhurst completely burned down on Wednesday after a large fire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-438104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}