UPDATE: Boyne Highlands confirmed 12 people were injured, and one person was transported to a hospital outside of the area

HARBOR SPRINGS, MI -- Hotel guests scrambled to escape a large fire at Boyne Highlands Resort in Harbor Springs in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The main lodge hotel experienced significant damage after the fire began around 2 a.m. Several people suffered injuries from smoke inhalation, according to an emergency alert from the Charlevoix, Cheboygan and Emmet Tri-County Office of Emergency Management.

Others were reported to have jumped from the hotel building to escape the flames, and one person was trapped. A short release is posted to the resort's website, which also reports injuries among guests escaping the fire.

Boyne Highlands confirmed 12 people were injured in a large fire at the resort's main lodge hotel Sunday morning. The statement said one person was transported to a hospital outside of the area for additional treatment but did not name the individual.

The ski slopes will remain closed Sunday. Central services like lodging check-in are being moved to another location on the property.

Petoskey photographer Alex Childress headed to the scene after receiving the emergency alert, arriving at 3 a.m. He said thick black smoke poured from rooms spanning the entire right side of the main lodge.

"The smoke was awful," he said. I wasn't even close (to the fire) and when I left I was coughing for two hours."

Childress saw firefighters attempt to cut a hole in the roof of the lodge and enter in the middle of the building. While trucks blasted water down from above, firefighters waded through smoke in the dark.

When he left around 5 a.m., Childress said there were no exposed flames on the outside of the lodge.

"It seemed like the fire was the whole length (of the right side)," Childress said. "I was thinking you would see flames but it must have been all deep within it."

The building's fire detection system alerted first responders from the Harbor Springs Area Fire Department and 911 dispatched additional firefighters as well as emergency medical and law enforcement officials. Harbor Springs Police Officer Lyle Reece said attempts to extinguish the fire were ongoing as of 8 a.m. on Sunday.

"Anyone who available was called out; it's mostly volunteers up here," he said.

The popular northern Michigan resort is a destination for family skiing, ziplining, sleigh rides and other outdoor activities.