COEUR d’ALENE — When Heather Gallegos got the call about some flooding at HeatPraxia, her sauna and cold plunge studio, she assumed there was a problem with the cold plunge tubs.

Upon arrival, however, Gallegos found the problem to be much worse.

“It was most certainly not the cold plunge tubs,” Gallegos said.

Following a brutal cold snap in January 2024, the pipes in the building at 404 E. Sherman Ave. froze and burst, flooding HeatPraxia and its neighbors with up to several feet of water in some parts of the facility.

As she and her team surveyed the damage, Gallegos recalled, “It was like it was raining inside. ... It was devastating, it was heartbreaking.”

The water damage ultimately resulted in about $300,000 in losses, and ongoing issues with mold made it impossible to remediate the space, Gallegos said.

“That day was just so low. We were all not emotionally well from it,” Gallegos said.

In the year that followed, there were times that Gallegos and her tight-knit team felt as though HeatPraxia was done for good as dealing with insurance and other matters became an uphill battle.

Even so, HeatPraxia reopened March 29 at a new, larger facility at 1090 Lakeshore Drive — a move that Gallegos described as “entirely a leap of faith.”

The new location has several more saunas, a communal sauna, a larger cold plunge pool, a red-light room and many other amenities that Gallegos said weren’t possible in the Sherman Avenue space due to limited square footage.   

Ironically, Gallegos said, she and her team had looked at the Lakeshore Drive property about a year before the flood.  

“When this happened, it almost felt like a ‘spiritual spanking,’" Gallegos said. “All of our spirits were checked, like ‘oh my gosh, we should have followed our guts a year ago.’” 

Over 250 people attended the grand opening, many of whom were HeatPraxia members before the flood.  

“It was more than I ever could have imagined,” Gallegos said. “Lots of photo taking, sauna-ing, cold plunging. ... It was a good day from open to close.” 

Gallegos admitted that the process leading up to the triumphant return of HeatPraxia has been “exhausting.”  

It’s also been well worth it.  

“There’s been lots of very long days, but to get to the part where the long days are now what you spent the whole year working towards feels like reaching the light at the end of the tunnel,” Gallegos said.