SAYWARD -- A building with a rich history in Sayward has been destroyed after a fire broke out Monday morning.

The old clubhouse on the 'Rainbow's End Golf Club' was gutted by a fire that the RCMP say is not suspicious in origin.

Const. Colin Banks of the Sayward RCMP says the clubhouse hadn't been in use for several years but the owners of the property had a 22-year-old niece staying in the building. She reportedly ran into problems on her second evening.

"She had a fire going in the wood stove and everything was fine for a few hours and she went to sleep and then woke up and the chair that was near the wood stove was smouldering and a little bit on fire," said Banks.

RCMP say the woman went for help but the fire spread too quickly. Banks says he’s unsure what alerted the woman to the fire but is pleased she was able to escape without injury.

"The fire department was on scene and did their investigation but it was an accidental fire and there's no further investigation by us," Banks said.

According to one Sayward resident, the building had a long and transformative history. She said it started off being a church, was then converted into a school and then was followed by a house. The building was later converted into 'Skogan's Diner' before becoming the golf clubhouse and then lastly becoming a house again.

A Facebook post by the Sayward Fire Department expressed sorrow in seeing the historic building gutted.

"Sad to see the demise of the golf course clubhouse early this morning. Unfortunately, we were called too late to have any chance of saving the building, but great teamwork by an awesome fire crew," reads the post.

"Thanks to John, Paul, Pat, Steve, Frank, Lois, Amanda, Steve and Jenn for all of your hard work. Sayward is lucky to have such dedicated people that are happy to work through the night while most other people are tucked up in their cozy beds."