A longtime interior design studio is among the handful of small businesses searching for a new home after the building they’ve operated in for 25 years caught fire on Memorial Day morning.
Kristin Fay of Trauner Fay Designs got a call at 7 a.m., about four hours after firefighters first responded to the blaze near Teton Pines country club in Wilson. The office building at 3490 Clubhouse Drive was still smoldering by mid-afternoon.
“Our showroom, our fabrics, our samples, our library, our client inventory, all of our records. I mean, it’s all gone. It’s devastating,” Fay said. “I spent more time at the office than I did at home.”
One firefighter was injured after falling off the roof of the office building and was transferred to St. John’s Health. They were not immediately identified but are in stable condition.
That was the only injury and the building appeared to be otherwise unoccupied, according to Teton County Public Information Specialist Kristen Waters.
The last major structure fire in the county was in May 2025, when a cabin off Sagebrush Drive caught fire, killing 28-year-old Rollie Wells Knori. That was later determined to be a suicide. Another structure fire last June prompted an evacuation.
The Memorial Day blaze comes during concern for wildfire season. Lightning triggered a small fire Sunday near Ouzel Falls and the Darwin Ranch.
Crews appeared to have extinguished the primary blaze in Wilson by midmorning, but remained on site throughout the day.
Crews appeared to have extinguished the primary blaze in Wilson by midmorning, but remained on site throughout the day. (Courtesy)
Building co-owner Marc Hirschfield said it appeared to be a total loss. The building hosted a mix of small businesses.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by state officials. The multi-agency response included a ladder truck from the volunteer Teton Village Fire Department and crews from Jackson Hole Fire/EMS.
“It was a full-court press,” said Jackson Hole Fire/EMS Battalion Chief Christopher Stiehl. The alert went out to all six stations, he said, and the fire had likely been burning for “quite some time” when the call came in at 3:01 a.m.
The building’s layout made it a complicated blaze to extinguish, Siehl said. The fire burned between the steeply pitched roof and the ceilings, and in between the walls.
“It sure did take a while to get under control,” Stiehl said, adding that he believed there were no sprinklers in the building.
That could be because the two-story building, which county records state was built in 1990, was grandfathered into building codes that exclude structures permitted on or before Oct. 1, 1991. Teton County Planning Director Chris Neubecker did not immediately return a request for comment.
Fay said she heard the fire started on the second floor of the 9,700-square-foot building, which then collapsed into her office on the first floor.
Cars in the subterranean parking lot were also totaled, she said.
She watched the building burn with her business partner, Terry Trauner. They are currently trying to find a temporary space to work out of.
“The business has still got to go on, so we’re figuring out where to set up and get new computers and just keep going as much as we can,” Fay said.
Other tenants included accountant Jim Reed, banker Dick Scarlett, Headwall Construction, and John Resor, the president and CEO of Shooting Star, according to Fay.
“It totally sucks,” said Colby Bancroft, a partner at Headwall, which has operated in the building since 2020.
The county valued the building at $4.3 million. Siehl said it will likely be demolished and rebuilt.
Neighbor Elizabeth Lopeman watched the fire burn from 5 to 7 a.m. and said it was good there was no wind.
