Officials: Two dead in house fire south of Whitefish
<p class="p1">Fire crews work to clear the area of debris and dowse hot spots in the wake of a brutal house fire that destroyed a Trumble Creek Road home and left two people dead Monday morning. (Matt Hudson/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Fire totally consumed this home on Trumble Creek Road south of Whitefish on Monday morning. Two people are unaccounted for. (Chris Peterson/Hungry Horse News)</p>
An intense house fire that leveled a home on Trumble Creek Road has left two people dead.
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry verified late Monday that an adult woman and a 3-year-old boy died in the blaze.
Officials will not release the identities of the deceased until family has been notified.
The fire broke out shortly after 9 a.m. Monday morning. By the time firefighters arrived, it was completely consumed in flames.
“There was fire coming out of all four walls, all three floors,” said Columbia Falls Fire Chief Rick Hagen.
Two people escaped from the house, which had two stories and a basement. One left from the top floor while the other made it out of the basement.
But another two people were unaccounted for by the time firefighters got control of the blaze. They were trapped in the basement level.
Hagen said at midday that the likelihood of people surviving in those conditions for a long time is zero. An excavator was brought in to remove debris so that investigators could examine the structure.
Authorities recovered the bodies Monday afternoon.
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry was on the scene as coroner.
After the fire, the home had almost completely collapsed into its footprint. Only small pieces of concrete walls remained standing.
Columbia Falls, Whitefish, Bad Rock, West Valley and Evergreen fire departments responded to the scene. Personnel from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation also responded.
Hagen said that there wasn’t an initial determination into the cause or point of origin, but the investigation is ongoing.
“How that fire can get so big so fast is one of the things we’ve got to find out,” he said.
Reporter Matt Hudson may be reached at 758-4459 or by email at mhudson@dailyinterlake.com.