Firefighters rescue man from blaze

The Daily Inter Lake

Firefighters pulled a man out of a smoke-filled apartment and extinguished a fire that was burning in a living-room wall Sunday afternoon above the Great Northern Bar.

"If it had happened at 2 or 3 in the morning, he probably would have died," fire Chief Dave Sipe said.

The Whitefish Fire Department was called at 5:30 p.m., when people in the bar noticed smoke was seeping through the light fixtures from the apartment above.

Sipe kicked in the apartment door. The man inside acknowledged Sipe but wouldn't come out.

"The individual in the apartment was having a problem," Sipe said.

The resident seemed disoriented and confused, he said.

There was too much smoke to enter the apartment without an air pack, Sipe said. When firefighters arrived with their gear, they took the man out. He went first to North Valley Hospital, then to Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Sipe also went to the hospital. He fell when he was carrying a fan up the stairs and injured his back.

The fire apparently started on a wooden ledge that runs around the room, Sipe said.

"The fire looks like it was possibly set," he said.

A full complement of ambulances and fire engines arrived at the bar.

"The guys did a real good job," Sipe said.

He minimized his injury Monday evening.

"It's our job. People would be disappointed if we didn't do it."