Photos of a massive blaze that lit up the Helena Valley flooded social media Thursday night and Helena Fire Department Assistant Chief shares the latest on the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds carpenter shop fire.
“When we arrived on scene we saw very heavy fire conditions," Chambers says. "We were told there was an individual potentially in the building so we double checked that and still had heavy fire conditions and confirmed the individual had gotten out at the time we called what is a first alarm which is to get us additional resources.”
West Valley, East Valley, the VA, and Montana City departments also responded to the call of the fairgrounds shop fire and were able to put out the flames at around 10:30 pm Thursday.
The Helena Fire Department, in situations where it is all hands on deck, place off-duty staff to backfill the station in the case of other emergencies.
Chambers says, “We are very acclimated to these types of incidents, so we pull the trigger as soon as we know that the threshold for overwhelming the resources that we can bring to bear instantly.”
The investigation into the fire's cause is ongoing Friday and are using exterior cameras, interviews, and searching the ash to find more answers.
“With a structure like this with the gas, the torches, all the different things, it is hard to say what possibly could have started this," Chambers says.
In addition to a fire of that size, crews faced challenges of slick ice, traffic, and a power pole that caught fire.
Fortunately, responders had good hydrant access and were able to spray the scene with water quickly to prevent other nearby structures from being destroyed.
At this time the Fairgrounds does not know the extent of the impacts and expense that the fire will cause.
“Pretty much anything they utilized to work on the fairgrounds whether plowing or fixing stuff is destroyed," Chambers says. "It is a one hundred percent total loss and is going to be very expensive in the long term for them.”
As the investigation continues, responders are managing hot spots and will soon push the debris together behind a fence for the safety of the public.
We will provide more updates on the fire as they are available.
