Echo Lake Store building destroyed in fire
Alex Strickland/Bigfork Eagle Piles of burned rubble are all that remain at the site of the old Echo Lake Store at the corner of Highway 82 and Swan River Road. The structure burned to the ground early last Wednesday morning. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation.
By ALEX STRICKLAND
Bigfork Eagle
A Bigfork landmark was destroyed in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, when the building that previously housed the Echo Lake Store burned to the ground.
Bigfork Fire Chief Chuck Harris said the call came in at 1:28 a.m., and by the time firefighters arrived at the corner of Highway 82 and Swan River Road minutes later, the structure was completely engulfed in flames.
"It was totally involved when we arrived," he said. "The doors and windows had already blown."
Because it was immediately clear that it would be impossible to save the structure, Harris said the department's objective was to protect the surrounding buildings. Also a concern, he said, were the abandoned gasoline tanks on the premises from when the business sold gas.
"We wanted to keep the tanks wet and cool," he said.
In addition to firefighters from Bigfork, volunteers from the Ferndale and Creston departments assisted in putting out the blaze, which lasted until dawn.
"Creston and Ferndale provided a lot of manpower and equipment," Harris said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, something that is proving difficult, according to Detective Sgt. Pat Walsh with the Flathead County Sheriff's Office.
In the process of extinguishing the fire, Harris said firefighters had to use an excavator to pull the tin roof off the building in order to get water onto the main part of the flames. While effective in accomplishing that task, the heavy equipment also pulled apart some of the structure that could have given investigators important clues.
"It's a catch-22," Harris said of the usefulness of an excavator and the unintended consequences.
Walsh said now everything on the scene is "in piles," making it difficult to even tell what parts of the building are from where.
Though Walsh and his team have yet to come to any conclusions about the fire's origins, there was a break-in and vandalism at the building - which was most recently acting as a game-processing facility - four days before the fire.
"Who knows if it's connected to the fire at all," he said. "Three hooded vandals spray painted a bunch of juvenile lettering."
Walsh said that video footage of the Nov. 29, crime was taken out of the building and brought to the sheriff's office for examination by video experts in the days before the fire.
Walsh said that any witnesses or anyone with information about either the vandalism or the fire should contact him at the Flathead County Sheriff's Office at 758-5603.