Barn a total loss after fire

The Daily Inter Lake

A barn in the 200 block of Breezy Point Avenue in Somers burned to the ground early Sunday morning.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, said Somers-Lakeside Fire Department Chief Rich Boon.

When firefighters arrived at about 12:15 a.m., the barn was already fully engulfed by flames. The building was a total loss, Boon said.

Actually an old house converted into a barn for llamas, the barn was being used to store hay and other items, said fire marshal Dan Vachal. It was unoccupied at the time of the incident, he said.

The fire, which was reported by a passerby, was large enough to see from U.S. 93, Vachal said, adding that several people stopped on the side of the road to watch.

It took about an hour for firefighters to control the initial blaze, which flared up again just after 7 a.m. The flare-up was extinguished in about 10 minutes, Boon said.

The fire caused between $2,000 and $3,000 in damage to items stored inside the building, Vachal said, who didn't have a dollar figure for damage to the barn itself.

The Lakeside Quick Response Unit and a Kalispell Fire Department ambulance also responded to the fire. There were no injuries.