Noxon firefighter injured in blaze

A Noxon firefighter was life-flighted with burns from the site of a large explosion in Noxon Monday morning.

Shortly after 7 a.m. neighbors called 911 to report an explosion at the Robert Omsted property on S. Clarks Addition Road in Noxon. They called again after a second, much larger explosion rocked their houses.

"It was flames hundreds of feet high, and a huge mushroom cloud. It shook the house," said Jodi and Jim Foster who live next door to the Omsted property.

Multiple fire and ambulance responders were told to back off and let the fire burn. Ammunition could still be heard firing from the burning site three hours after the explosion.

Several buildings were on the property, and it was not immediately known how many were destroyed in the explosion and fire.

"I told the fire department to back off," said Sanders County Sheriff Tom Rummel. "We have one engine in there right now that has the capability to spray from the front of the vehicle. They are using that to wet things down and cool things off. We're trying to keep the majority of people back for safety at this point, and still have some containment on the fire and cool things off enough that we can get more people in there."

Rummel said the cause of the explosion was not yet established. Based on the sound, he said, the smaller, continuing bangs were from small arms ammunition. The state fire marshal had been called to investigate.

The owners were reportedly not on the premises at the time of the fire.

It did not appear that the fire was in danger of spreading to neighboring properties at this time, Rummel said.