Fire guts apartments, shop

The Daily Inter Lake

A fire late Friday night did about $100,000 in damage to an Evergreen shop and two apartments, according to the Evergreen Fire Department.

The fire began in a second-story apartment above a shop, 143 East Evergreen Drive, Evergreen fire Chief Craig Williams said. It was reported at 10:56 p.m. Friday.

Evergreen firefighters were on scene within five minutes, Williams said, where they found heavy smoke throughout the apartment. The fire spread to a first-floor apartment and the shop below, but firefighters prevented the flames from spreading to the connecting house.

Forty-five people from the Evergreen, Kalispell, Creston, South Kalispell and West Valley fire departments, as well as the Flathead County Sheriff's Office, responded to the fire, Williams said. They were on scene for about 8.5 hours.

It took so long to put out the flames because of 'significant fuel loading" in the building, he said. There were industrial items in the shop, and many books and paperwork in the apartments.

Further complicating firefighters' efforts were the building's three roofs. The building began as a garage, and as the homeowners built up the shop and added the apartments, the roofs multiplied.

"They ended up with a bunch of different structures within a structure," Williams explained.

The apartments' two residents got out safely, he said, and spent the night with friends. No one was injured.

The fire was mostly contained to the second-floor apartment, Williams said, but the flames did some damage to the apartment and shop below. He estimated the damage to the building and its contents to be about $100,000.

"It is uninhabitable at this point," Williams said. "It is not structurally sound."

Firefighters don't know what caused the fire, he said.