Firefighters put out blaze

Nick Ianniello

Mineral Independent

The St. Regis and West End Fire Departments salvaged what they could of a Cabin City man’s home that caught fire Wednesday evening.

Eight fire fighters from the West End Volunteer Fire Department and eight fire fighters from the St. Regis Volunteer Fire Department responded to a 911 call at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday for a fire in Cabin City.

While road conditions where a huge concern for responding fire fighters, they took their all-wheel drive rescue vehicles to the scene. A Montana State plow truck also heard the emergency call and plowed the secondary road leading to Don Bower’s burning home ahead of the fire trucks.

“We just couldn’t go as fast as we would have liked,” West End Volunteer Fire Chief Bruce Charles said.

By the time fire fighters arrived on the scene, Charles said that around half of the building was already engulfed in flames and part of the roof had collapsed.

Fire fighters from St. Regis attacked one side of the building while fire fighters from the West End Volunteer Fire Department attacked the other side.

Charles said that no one was hurt and the fire was largely extinguished within ten minutes of arrival.

Fire fighters used Type A Foam to put the blaze out. Charles said that the foam is particularly effective because it breaks the surface tension of water allowing it to soak into wood to extinguish a blaze. The foam also smothers flames by covering up surfaces that are on fire.

“That stuff helped a lot,” Charles said.

Fire fighters used around 20,000 gallons of water to put out the fire. Charles said that thanks to an extra tender that the St. Regis Fire Department bought they had plenty of water to take care of the fire.

After the blaze was extinguished fire fighters spent the next few hours putting out small residual hot spots throughout the home and left the scene a little after midnight.

“We’re just very lucky that we saved what we could,” Charles said.

Another small hot spot flared up hear a woodpile at the home later the next day and the West End Volunteer Fire Department responded and put out the blaze.

Charles later visited Bowen’s home with a Montana State Fire marshal to determine the cause of the fire. Charles said that the cause was determined to be some sort of flammable substance that got too close to a wood-burning stove.

Half of the house was destroyed in the fire, but a section of the house Bowen called the apartment was saved by fire fighter efforts.

“He was very thankful that we were able to get there in time,” Charles said about the owner’s reaction.