Firefighters called twice to house fire

Several fire departments responded to two separate outbreaks of fire in a home north of Kalispell Friday evening and Saturday morning.

According to West Valley Fire Chief Russ Sappington, an initial call came in at 6:06 p.m. Friday about a two-story home being on fire at 327 Ponderosa Lane.

The fire is believed to have started in the living room after a log fell out of a fireplace. The log was put back in the fireplace, but it is suspected that a stray ember ignited the larger fire in the home, Sappington said. The burning was contained mostly to the downstairs living room, although some flames did extend into a second-story bathroom.

Evergreen, Kalispell, South Kalispell and Smith Valley fire departments assisted West Valley in extinguishing the fire. The sole occupant at home at the time of the fire made it out safely, Sappington said.

A few hours later, at 2:17 a.m., the fire rekindled, prompting fire crews to return to the scene. “It did just a little bit more damage basically to the area that had already burned,” Sappington said.

An Okie from Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office called Columbia Falls Police to confirm that an off-duty deputy had found a gun that had been reported stolen. The investigation concluded that the gun had been reported as stolen locally and had been found several states away.

An officer was advised of the identity of a man who was reported as suspicious to dispatchers after being seen in camouflage and a yellow face mask. The officer knew the identity of the man and said he was not harmful.

Someone reported to Kalispell Police that a tire had been slashed on Ninth Avenue West by an unknown vandal. The owner did not immediately report the incident to police and had AAA perform a tire change. Someone else reported the damage.

A brown 1995 Jeep Cherokee Sport was reported stolen from a parking lot off Fourth Avenue West. The thief would have needed to have some gas money at his or her disposal to get very far. The owner reported that the fuel light had come on just before the vehicle was parked.

A woman on Santa Fe Street asked for an officer assist after she found that her car alarm would not stop going off and making a honking noise. An officer helped her disconnect her battery cables. The woman planned to contact a mechanic on Monday.

Officers retrieved a blood draw kit to investigate whether or not alcohol might have been a factor in a two-vehicle accident at Old Reserve Drive and U.S. 93.

School books and other academic items were taken, along with a backpack, from an unlocked vehicle on Fourth Avenue West.

A man wanted to know what his rights were and how he should proceed after he trapped a neighbor’s cat on 11th Street East. The man said that there had been an ongoing issue with the kitty coming onto his property, into his home, and tinkling on clothing and carpet in the house. He had confronted the neighbor and the neighbor allegedly agreed to put an electronic collar on the animal to keep its potty business on its owner’s property. Since that discussion the cat had urinated again in the man’s home. He bought a trap and detained the animal, but could not decide how to proceed. The man said that his neighbor had been civil about the issue. An officer was dispatched to give advice.

A man reported that he had woken up the next morning coughing up blood after an inebriated off-duty bar worker had punched him in the lower sternum during an altercation the night before. The bar manager had allegedly texted an apology to the man for the assault. The man planned to go to the doctor, then possibly file a police report.

Someone called Whitefish Police to report that a man with a bleeding hand was trying to break in a front window at a home on Colorado Avenue. The person inside the residence had a shotgun at the ready, but did not want to shoot the man. The man was taken by ambulance to North Valley Hospital for his injuries, but was expected to have some explaining to do once he got out. He was allegedly on probation in Idaho for drug possession; Whitefish Police were handling the attempted break-in.