Business demolished and 7 lose homes in Glendive fire

GLENDIVE — On Tuesday in Glendive, the Ponderosa making was considered a complete reduction and seven persons have been with no properties immediately after hearth demolished the building above the weekend, mentioned Glendive Fire Chief Russell Feisthamel.

“There’s not a great deal of something remaining,” Feisthamel reported.

The fire connect with came in all around 7:45 p.m. Sunday evening and crews eventually cleared the scene all around noon on Monday, but ended up known as back about two several hours later on to set out flare ups. One very last crew was dispatched on Tuesday to the Ponderosa setting up to put out any remaining embers.

It can be nonetheless not regarded what started the hearth. Feisthamel stated the result in will at some point be released from the condition fire marshal after the investigation wraps up.

021522_3.3.1.jpg — The Ponderosa making in Glendive was continue to smoldering a working day right after it caught hearth.

The evening of the hearth, lifelong Glendive resident Donald LaPlante Jr. could notify something was mistaken from the vantage place in his backyard from across town.

“A minor right after 2 o’clock in the morning, I allow the pet dogs out to go to the toilet in the yard. I are living on the full reverse end of city, as considerably as you can get, on the other side of the river. I could see the smoke and the glow from the fireplace from Forest Park,” LaPlante explained.

021522_2.2.1.jpg — Drone pilot, Donald LaPlante, speaks with MTN News by means of video simply call on Feb. 15, 2022.

Typically an outside photographer who uses his drone to doc the annually ice jams on the Yellowstone River, LaPlante went to do the job using video of the developing each ahead of and immediately after fire gutted it.

“You couldn’t miscalculation that it wasn’t anything but a hearth, that’s for positive. When you experienced flames taller than any setting up downtown,” LaPlante explained. “It lit anything up downtown. Even coming across the bridge around the river. It was very massive.”

The two-tale constructing was the former property of a hair salon and 4 residences. Seven people today missing their residences, according to Glendive resident Jen Hawkinson, who performs with LIFTT, a community nonprofit that connects folks with disabilities to group assets.

Fiesthamel reported a business’s door south of the fire sustained hurt when a brick wall fell. A utilized household furniture retail store to the west that had a linked wall sustained intense drinking water destruction and a partly collapsed roof, Fiesthamel said.

Two firefighters were being transported to a regional hospital, but ended up launched later that day, Fiesthamel mentioned.

That however leaves persons without their houses and belongings in Glendive. Hawkinson claimed some remaining the fire with only the apparel on their again and some even with no footwear. She mentioned apparel and food stuff are the most important factors necessary at this time.

“The huge factor is that they all obtained out and they are all right and no one particular received hurt. Everything else is just materials and they can change it. But I simply cannot visualize how a great deal of a decline it is and just the setback in everyday living,” LaPlante explained.

The Glendive Tractor Source Co. at 2808 West Towne St. has been set up as a landing place for donations. Other donations can be made by mail addressed to LIFTT at P.O. Box 1387, Glendive, MT, 59330. Make sure to notice your donation is for fireplace aid.