EDITORIAL: Fire hall arsonist must be caught

Imagine the shock of firefighters reporting to their fire hall to respond to an accident scene and finding that instead their fire hall had become a crime scene.

That’s what happened on July 3 at the Smith Valley fire hall on Foy’s Lake Road. Firefighters discovered that an arsonist had broken into the building sometime the night before and had destroyed their rescue truck and much of their valuable equipment.

What a slap in the face to the fine community members who put their own lives at risk to protect and save others! What a senseless crime! It boggles the imagination to try to find a motive for such a hurtful, harmful action, but we hope the person or people responsible are brought to justice quickly — before they can do any more damage or potentially kill someone.

Someone, somewhere probably knows who is responsible. Please, if you have any information that will help solve this crime, contact Crimestoppers at 752-TIPS or by email at flatheadcrimestoppers1@gmail.com.

Summer taking a toll

It’s a hoary old adage — “Be careful out there” — but it applies more than ever this summer.

The seasonal surge of visitors to Northwest Montana is predicted to be 20 percent higher this year than last year, which means there are many, many more people on the roads, trails, waterways and lakes.

If you haven’t noticed it already, it’s getting mighty crowded out there, whether it’s intersections in Kalispell or parking areas in Glacier National Park.

With those crowds come crises. Consider that in the past 10 days we have seen a car collision on Going-to-the-Sun Road that injured seven people, a boat explosion on Swan Lake that burned four children and an adult, a fatal encounter between a mountain biker and a bear, and a fiery vehicle rollover that claimed the life of a Bigfork High School senior.

The takeaway from these dire events is that the value of being careful — in your local travels or whatever recreational activity in which you’re engaged — can’t be emphasized enough.

Be careful out there, indeed.