Fire

It has been a crazy time here lately. I've had company, two cattle jailbreaks, other stuff and now this morning - a major fire.

I woke up before 7 am to sirens. Looking out the window I saw a firetruck driving north on my road. I saw it pull into the driveway of my NE neighbor. They are older and retired and I thought he or she may be having a medical emergency. Then another firetruck arrived and drove west of that neighbor's house. I then saw a few firetrucks arriving and driving to my northern neighbor's (Jim's) shop.

Uh oh!

I quickly got some clothes on and went outside. Smoke was billowing from Jim's shop. My hay shed was just feet away from the shop and in my hay shed were my horse trailer, motor home, and piles of lumber and other wood.

YIKES!

I hadn't started my motor home all winter and the battery was out of it. And the horse trailer was parked behind the motor home blocking it. Other stuff such as rolls of fencing was also in the way. I ran over and got the fencing and stuff out of the building.

Fire was coming out of the shop's walls and especially the shop wall facing my building.

I went over to where the fire departments were assembling. No one was spraying water yet. They were waiting for the third water tender. I was directed to the coordinator. I told him the hay shed was mine. He asked what was in it. He was concerned about tanks, etc. I told him.

I walked back to my hay shed on the west side and saw the fire was burning on the ground through old grass and past stuff Jim was storing. Flames were almost to my building. My building is a couple feet from my barb wire fence and snowberry bushes and grass were there lending fuel for a fire. My building was a minute or two from catching on fire.

I yelled for the fire fighters to come and got the attention of the coordinator and he sent people with water hoses back to my building. They were starting to spray my building as I ran home to get my pickup and motor home keys.

The cattle were all crowded in one corner of the corral farthest from the commotion. They ran to me as I crossed the corral to the gate. To get to my horse trailer with my pickup I would have to drive through the corral and the cattle. I needed my rancher girl Tammy (yet again!) to handle the gates and cattle as I drove through but she was back in Minnesota.

Water was being sprayed all over my hay shed and over the top of my hay shed and I walked back to the fire. The flames on the south side of Jim's shop were out so I decided not to drive over to pull out my horse trailer.

Jim and his wife are in Missoula but I saw his son-in-law and went over to talk to him. He said had been working in the shop around 5 am and cut a couple pieces of metal and then left. He saw no fire. He cut metal last night and had done this many times before so he didn't think that was the cause. He was in shock and he said he felt sick to his stomach. He finally reached Jim on his cell phone and gave him the news.

I am not sure who reported the fire but the son-in-law said that when the fire fighters opened the shop's garage doors flames lept out and high into the sky. Apparently the fire fighter had to go in a side door next to the garage doors and use the keys to open the garage doors from the inside. Yikes!

The building is a total loss. Only two walls (north and east) are still standing. Jim had his excavator he used in his scrap metal business inside. Also lost was the son-in-law's boat. Debbie's mother is now living with Debbie and Jim and all her stuff was stored in one of the storage units. All gone. Plus all the shop tools, etc., etc. A travel trailer parked nearby had it's window cracked from the heat and inside curtains melted. Aluminum wheel rims were partially burnt from the heat. Fortunately Jim's logging truck wasn't parked near the building.

Firefighters from Kalispell, South Kalispell, Evergreen, Columbia Falls, Whitefish, and West Valley fire departments all arrived to fight the fire. They had it out before 9 am. They had to tear down parts of the west outside wall to get to some of the fire. The tires stored inside were especially hard to put out.

Where the fire reached my hay shed, it was over ten feet wide. My shed had metal sheets over the old wood. The sheets went to the ground in some spots, at other spots the ground was open underneath the metal. I went inside the hay shed and moved all the lumber away from this area and checked for smoke, fire or warmth. Nothing. *whew* The hay shed wood is old and that type of wood can start on fire on little flame. I have some fiberglass panels near the roof and four of them were blackened and partially melted.

Fortunately there was no wind when the fire was raging.

So my planned events for the day are all out the window.

Oh yeah, my new camera quit working while I was talking photos. The lens now won't open or close. Of course I can't find the receipt even though I save all receipts and only bought the camera a few months ago.

Five hours of sleep and I am still high on adrenaline.

I don't have many photos of the fire itself as I was busy running around.