Apartment building catches fire, again

Columbia Falls firefighters were back on the scene Wednesday morning at an apartment building that caught fire, again.

Fire Chief Karl Weeks said that investigators couldn’t completely rule out a rekindle, but the blaze appeared suspicious, as tenants and the owner had been at the building until after 10 p.m. Tuesday night.

They hadn’t seen or smelled any signs of fire or smoke. Residents were in the building trying to sort through items that had been damaged in the previous blaze.

The call came in at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday that the building was blazing, again.

Early videos of the scene taken by neighbors show flames leaping from the Fourth Avenue West building, which initially caught fire Sunday afternoon, leaving about 20 people homeless that lived in the nine-unit apartment.

The neighbors said a Daily Inter Lake paper route driver banged on their door and alerted them to the fire.

Weeks said a fire investigative team from the county was examining the building and an excavator was being brought in to tear it apartment so firefighters could make sure it was dead out.

The fire initially broke out about 2 p.m. Sunday and firefighters were able to contain the blaze to just the building itself, as it had the potential to spread to neighboring properties as temperatures were in the 90s and the area hasn’t seen any rain since early July.

They dumped thousands of gallons of water on it over the course of about five hours.

The department’s ladder truck, for example, can dump 2,000 gallons of water a minute and it ran continuously on the blaze.

The ladder truck was also used Wednesday morning.

Bad Rock and Whitefish responded with mutual aid. Three Rivers Ambulance was also on the scene. There were no injuries.