Intentional fire quickly quelled at GHS

Kalispell Fire Department responded to a fire that started in a garbage can in a girl’s bathroom on the first floor of Glacier High School around 11:50 a.m. Thursday. Glacier Principal Micah Hill sent out an email to families notifying them on the situation. He said the garbage was intentionally set on fire.

“Our emergency notification system worked flawlessly and students evacuated the building. The fire was put out with an extinguisher and there was no permanent fire damage to the building and no one was injured,” the email advised.

“The garbage receptacle is made of plastic and the smoke from the fire was toxic. The fire department used large commercial fans to push the smoke out of the building and once the air quality improved they allowed students back into the building at 12:05.

“There was some disruption to first lunch and to fifth period, but students have managed the interruption and school is continuing as normal. We will investigate the situation to determine who started the fire,” Hill noted in the email.

A woman on Wollan Way in Whitefish called Flathead County Sheriff’s Office and said she recorded what sounded like another woman screaming in the neighborhood and told officers she hears screaming in the afternoon every day and during a certain time of night. The caller reportedly said the neighbor sometimes goes on the porch and plays “weird sounds” like a bear growling, dogs barking or a grandfather clock and noted she had a recording of that on her phone, too. She purportedly believed the neighbors were trying to provoke her dogs to bark.

A concerned parent on U.S. 2 in Kalispell allegedly had an ongoing issue with a neighbor’s children coming over and tormenting her daughter over the course of two weeks and said a month ago a couple of boys punched her. On this particular day, the neighbor’s children were reportedly trespassing on their property.

Deputies responded to a report of a man wearing a trench coat who was allegedly swinging a shaking dog around on a leash and picking it up “by the scruff of the neck” and then tossing it down on Evergreen Drive. Officers made contact with the man and observed him walking the puppy on a leash and noted the puppy “did not like it.” The puppy appeared to be healthy, but shaking because of the cold, so the officer gave him a blanket, advising him to wrap it up and carry it.

A man on Circle Drive in Columbia Falls reported a tailgate and taillights stolen from his trailer.

A woman on U.S. 2 in Columbia Falls stole a beer.