Firefighters remained at the scene of a North Pines Road house fire into the afternoon Tuesday, putting out hot spots and ensuring the embers were completely extinguished from Monday night’s fire.

West Valley Fire Chief Russ Sappington said his agency and the Smith Valley, South Kalispell and Whitefish fire departments responded to the home after a call came in at about 7:15 p.m. Monday. Sappington was the first on the scene.

“When we got up there, the house was fully involved on the north side,” he said. “We immediately began a defensive position as there was no way to do an interior attack on it.”

The house was destroyed, but firefighters were able to save a vehicle and some other personal belongings from the garage. No one was home at the time.

Once the fire was brought under control, Sappington said it took about four hours to get it totally knocked down and cooled before firefighters monitored it all night.

“We had an engine and a crew just sit out here at night and watch for flare-ups, knock the flare-ups down, let the steam do its work and keep an eye on it,” he said.

Sappington estimated the house — a heavy-timber-construction specialty home —was worth at least $300,000.

“I’ll leave that for the insurance adjuster,” he said, adding, “I want to get with the insurance adjuster myself, because the structure itself isn’t really safe.”

Sappington said the plan is to eventually bring in an excavator in and take the structure completely down, but that he didn’t want to disturb anything until the adjusters had a chance to see the damage.

“We’ll stay and do whatever it takes until people are satisfied and we can make it safe,” he said.

An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.

Floyd Bechtold, father of one of the owners, said the owners are Jerry and Kristin Nielsen. They were out of town in New Orleans at the time of the fire.

Later Monday night, the Kalispell and South Kalispell fire departments and Evergreen Fire Rescue were called out to the area of Trails End Drive southeast of Kalispell, following a report from a man who said there had been some kind of explosion followed by what looked like a controlled burn.

The man said the fire “smells really weird,” but was unable to elaborate other than saying, “It’s bad.”

Kalispell Fire Chief Dave Dedman said no one from any of the three agencies was able to find anything in the area.