National Parks

Yosemite National Park's swankiest accommodations evacuated due to hotel fire

By Ashley Harrell,
National Parks Bureau Chief
March 3, 2026


The exterior of the Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite National Park on June 21, 2025.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

At 6:45 p.m. Monday in Yosemite National Park, Jennifer Morton and her son Brandon were sitting down to dinner in the historic Ahwahnee Dining Room when the fire alarm went off.

At first, employees seemed to think it was a false alarm, Morton told SFGATE. But “within probably 60 to 90 seconds, they started pulling everyone out of the restaurant,” she said.

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Evacuated Ahwahnee hotel and dinner guests saw smoke billowing from a top-floor window on Monday, March 2, 2026.
Courtesy of Brandon Morton

SFGATE emailed the National Park Service and Aramark, the parent company of park concessioner Yosemite Hospitality, to ask what caused the fire and whether there had been injuries or damages. Neither responded before publication time.

But after returning to the hotel to have their dinner, the Mortons spoke with several employees who told them the fire was connected to an elevator repair. “The public elevator is out of commission right now,” Brendan said. “So they were moving people up and down with the service elevator.”

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March 3, 2026

Ashley Harrell
National Parks Bureau Chief
Ashley Harrell is the national parks bureau chief at SFGATE, where she’s worked since 2020. She recently co-authored the National Geographic book "100 Beaches of a Lifetime: The World's Ultimate Shorelines," and has reported from 17 countries, working on more than 50 travel guidebooks. Her story about human-turtle conflict on Hawaii’s Poipu Beach won gold in the environmental and sustainable tourism category of the Lowell Thomas Awards in 2024. Send story tips or comments to ashley.harrell@sfgate.com.