Local fire crews douse structure fire
KRISTI NIEMEYER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 8 months AGO
Firefighters from Polson Rural, Polson City and Ronan responded to a structure fire at the former Jolly Pack Rat last Friday night. (JP Edge/Hungry Horse News)
It was all hands on deck last Friday when three fire crews, the county sheriff and ambulance responded to a fire at the former Jolly Pack Rat. No injuries were reported. (JP Edge/Hungry Horse News)
Polson firefighter Chris McGuinness joined crews from three departments who responded to the structure fire last Friday night at the former Jolly Pack Rat on Hwy. 93. (JP Edge/Hungry Horse News)
Kristi Niemeyer is editor of the Lake County Leader. She learned her newspaper licks at the Mission Valley News and honed them at the helm of the Ronan Pioneer and, eventually, as co-editor of the Leader until 1993. She later launched and published Lively Times, a statewide arts and entertainment monthly (she still publishes the digital version), and produced and edited State of the Arts for the Montana Arts Council and Heart to Heart for St. Luke Community Healthcare. Reach her at editor@leaderadvertiser.com or 406-883-4343. | March 1, 2023 11:00 PM
A structure fire at the former Jolly Pack Rat, south of Polson on Hwy. 93, last Friday was contained by fire crews from Ronan, Polson and the Polson Rural Fire District.
According to Polson Rural Fire Chief Gordon Gieser, the temperature was 4 degrees when firefighters responded to the blaze, which they were able to confine to a single second-story room and its contents. Lake County Sheriff’s Department and the local ambulance service were also on hand, although no injuries were reported.
While Gieser said the department is still wrapping up its investigation, the fire appeared to have been started in an effort to heat the space during last week’s cold snap.
House fires are more common “when it’s really cold and when it warms up and people don’t make adjustments,” he says, such as turning off heaters that were used to thaw pipes. That was the only structure fire his crew responded to during the cold spell, which saw temperatures dip below zero.
