Downtown fire costs assessed

The Daily Inter Lake

It will be a week or so before damages are known from the fire at a Main Street building being remodeled for Glacier Bank.

The fire damaged the upper part of the building Tuesday when a spark or heat from a welder reportedly started the fire. Kalispell fire department, backed up by other firefighters, stopped a roaring fire before it spread down the block of historic buildings.

Glacier Bank president Robert Nystuen said no damage estimates will be in "until next week or so." Insurance companies and engineers will come up with the estimate, he said.

The day after the fire, work was under way on a water line on Second Street West.

The bank project involves remodeling the former Conlin's building and then connecting that structure with the main bank building across Second Street West with a skywalk.

After the smoke settled last week, Nystuen said bank officials had "a chance to reflect on how this could have been a horrible fire" that could have consumed other commercial structures in the densely-built block of Main Street.

The main Glacier Bank building was evacuated when the fire was spotted.

Nystuen said that was an orderly exercise that involved about 100 employees.