Fire destroys shed

MELITA ISLAND — Firefighters were called to the scene of a garage fire early Monday afternoon, Karen Sargeant, fire prevention officer for the Polson Fire Department, said.

At approximately 2:30 p.m., fire personnel received a call that a garage on Silver Smith Lane, off Melita Island Road near Big Arm, was fully engulfed in flames. Firefighters were advised there were propane tanks, ammunition and gun powder inside the garage.

On scene, firefighters learned that explosions in the garage prior to their arrival had caused the roof to collapse in and large flames had caught some overhead trees on fire, Sargeant said.

“We began fighting the fire defensively,” Sargeant said. “The garage was already gone, so we concentrated on containing the fire and protecting nearby structures.”

The main house, about 25 feet from the garage, sustained minor damage from the heat to the siding of the house. A second storage shed, about 30 feet from the garage, did not sustain any damage.

No one was injured in the fire.

Causes of the fire are still unknown, but Sargeant said preliminary indicators point the cause at a wood stove inside the garage.

“The building was totally destroyed, and in these cases it’s sometimes difficult to pinpoint a cause,” Sargeant said.

Twenty-two fire personnel responded with eight apparatuses from the Polson, Big Arm and Irvin Flats stations.

Early estimates of the damage is at about $450,000, Sargeant said.

“The resident is a gunsmith and had expensive machinery inside the garage that was destroyed,” Sargeant said. The only piece of machinery Sargeant said she could identify after the flames were extinguished was a drill press.

The resident also had antiques inside the garage and house. The antiques in the house were damaged when a concussion from an explosion from the garage knocked them off the shelves and wall, Sargeant said.