4,000 bales of straw burn

The Daily Inter Lake

A three-sided steel shed on West Springcreek Road caught fire Wednesday night, sending 4,000 square bales of straw up in flames.

While the shed is salvageable, the straw was a total loss, West Valley Fire Chief Rodney Dresbach said.

Firefighters doused the structure with water until an excavator and backhoe arrived to drag the shed's contents into a nearby field, where the burning straw bales were scattered and pulled apart.

"Straw is very difficult to put out," said Dresbach, whose crews used 56 gallons of foam in an attempt to smother the flames.

Dresbach estimated the straw still sitting in the field would continue to smolder and smoke for a "month or better."

Firefighters - who were dispatched to the shed about half a mile north of West Reserve Drive at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday - fought the fire for almost 12 hours.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Dresbach said.

More than 30 firefighters from the South Kalispell, Smith Valley and Evergreen fire departments also responded to the scene, Dresbach said.