Fire levels massive building

It took only three minutes for fire crews to arrive Thursday night after the 911 call came in, but Libby firefighters found the former Stimson Lumber Co. plywood plant fully engulfed in flames.

The 4.7-acre building burned to the ground and still smoldered on Friday while a steady stream of vehicles passed by to see the destruction.

“The moon was shining out and the plume was so huge that it looked like someone dropped an atomic bomb,” Lincoln County Sheriff Daryl Anderson said. “Embers were flying through the air all over.”

Residents from neighboring homes were evacuated as Libby and Troy firefighters worked to contain the flames.

“My husband said get your meds, get your clothes and get the heck out of here,” said Kay Tarbert, who lives on Fifth Street Extension across from the former mill.

Though the flames were shooting straight up — not toward homes — they were extremely hot, Tarbert said, and ashes were blowing into people’s yards.

The fire left little to salvage out of the businesses that were using the building, but no one was hurt and no homes caught fire.

Phil Spencer and Joel Chandler watched helplessly as all of the equipment and inventory from their specialty business, Wedge Wood Products, went up in flames.

“It hadn’t burnt yet but the fire department wasn’t able to get water up to it because of the 2,400-volt line that was running next to the road there,” Spencer said. “My partner begged the fire marshal to put water on it to save it, but the fire marshal said he couldn’t because the line wasn’t shut off.”

Spencer estimates their loss at $250,000 on the uninsured business.

In addition, the fire ate up about 10 unpatented machines that had taken Spencer 15 years to engineer. They had closed production in the winter to install new equipment and were ready to begin work on Monday.

“I feel a little bit wobbly from it all,” he said. “March was going to be when we put people to work because we already had orders and the equipment and a good start on stock to produce.”

Occasional explosions added to the dramatic scene Thursday, which Anderson said were fueled by propane tanks, tar from the structure’s roof and the wood preservative creosote.

“About all you can do is protect the structures on Wisconsin Avenue and Fifth Street and watch the fire burn,” Anderson said, “because they weren’t going to put it out.”

Eventually, all that was standing was the frame of the structure.

“After it burned long enough, it was just the beams,” Anderson said. “Then it was like a domino effect — one caved in and tipped over and then they all fell.”

Residents began returning to their homes about 1 a.m. Friday, Anderson said.

The sheriff’s office requested a state fire marshal to investigate. 

“We have no idea where the point of origin is at this time,” Anderson said. “It got so hot so fast. Apparently some people were working that day doing some welding and torching work. We don’t know yet if it has anything to do with the fire.”

Portions of the structure’s roof had caved in long before the fire and about three-fourths of the building was due to be demolished, according to Paul Rumelhart, director of the Kootenai River Development Council, which manages the industrial site.

The council lost a boom truck in the fire, he said, and the demolition company J.T. Welding and Construction also lost equipment.

Revett Minerals had used the site to perform a truck-to-rail transfer of silver and copper concentrates from Troy Mine. The fire took out four leased rail cars, and Terry Ward of T.L. Ward Trucking estimates he lost $150,000 in equipment, including his dump truck.

Rumelhart believes he will have a temporary loading site set up for use by Monday.

“Our immediate effort is to develop a place where Revett can continue to move their concentrate from the mine to the rail cars to the refinery,” Rumelhart said.