Fire sets back Yamaha 2011 product shoot

Think you had a bad day? How about being a snowmobile manufacturer on a deadline to produce photos of its newest models for advertising, sales brochures and PR purposes? If the sheer weight of pressing deadlines and fighting winter weather were not enough, throw in a devastating fire at your on-site headquarters that destroys four days of work, some key one-of-a-kind new product riding gear and accessories.

That’s the “bad day” Yamaha faced when a chimney fire ran out of control at its Wyoming photo site and resulted in the destruction of its “home” base lodge. Yamaha workers report the loss of “…all YPAD parts, along with all of the photographer’s computers, hard drives and most all of their high dollar camera equipment.”

In an effort to retrieve some data, the computers and hard drives were sent to Denver to see if any data and the four-plus days of action photos could be recovered. However, the show went on as Yamaha’s photo team headed out on the trails to continue with photography and video work previously scheduled.

A long time snowmobile photo and video professional, Wayne Davis and his team had been close to wrapping up the photo shoot. Instead he and Yamaha worked to salvage data and immediately set to re-shooting sequences with equipment not destroyed in the fire.

According to sources, a chimney fire blew out of control, gutting the log structure, including the gear. Yamaha reported that despite the severity of the fire, no one was hurt as most of the staff on site were housed in separate bunkhouses at the resort or at another lodge 30 minutes away.