Holy smoke: Two fires burn in two days, on top of all the wind damage, as agencies, community come together amidst multiple emergencies

High winds knocked down trees, power lines, signs and reportedly sent a trampoline on a flight across the Old Works on Wednesday, and on top of that there were a pair of fires on the east side of town as well, making for an extremely busy couple of days for emergency service workers in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, but it appears the Smelter City evaded the worst of it compared with other parts of the Treasure State. Yet it could have been much worse. 

The first was an attic fire in a residence at 909 E. 5th Street just after 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 17. Anaconda Fire Chief Cody Tocher explained that a resident there had seen "flames shooting out and coming down from the ceiling" and when firefighters arrived on scene they found the fire was in the attic. 

"We were able to pull the ceiling and extinguish the fire," Tocher said, noting that the firefighters on scene had to go through the back alley to combat the fire.

"It looks like they had some modifications in the front of the house – it was in the older part of the house, so we had to make access through the back," he said. "Northwestern Energy was there really quickly, they were able to turn off the gas and the power, which helps us out quite a bit."

Both the Anaconda Fire Department and the West Valley Volunteer Fire Department responded, as did Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement and NorthWestern Energy. Firefighters were on scene for about an hour, Tocher said.

As to the cause, Tocher said it wasn't wind related but rather had been some wiring that started burning. Even so, he said that "with the wind, if we had a big structure fire it would've been really challenging to keep it in one house." There were no injuries, and Tocher said the residents were able to get their dogs out of the house as well. 

The second fire was reported almost exactly 24 hours later, at 12:53 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 18, this one at Premier Portables – Big Sky Sheds at 132 Wastewater Rd. Yet it was not the main building but rather a pair of sheds at the back of the property, one of which burned to the ground while another sustained fire damage on its side. 

"It was on fire, but we were able to keep it to one side," Tocher said. Firefighters from Anaconda and the West Valley were on scene, and Opportunity also was dispatched but that callout was canceled after it was determined that only one shed was engulfed. Firefighters were on scene for about two hours to combat that blaze.

As to its cause, Tocher said they had a burn pile going where they were burning their scraps, but had left unattended for a bit. 

"We're thinking a hot ember went right into the two sheds," he said, adding that "you definitely don't want to burn when it's windy out."

There also were no injuries, nor were there any injuries reported from the wind storm. 

"I know of one tree that went on a garage but not injuries with the wind. Just multiple trees on power lines," Tocher said. "I think we fared pretty well compared to other towns."

"We're fortunate no one was hurt in the wind storm or the recovery process," said Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Chief Executive Bill Everett.

"All in all we survived pretty well – everyone pulled together, that's what I'm most gracious for." 

Everett praised the response of all the departments and agencies in ADLC during the wind storm. 

"It was fortunate we had good forewarning on this one. We were able to take down the big flag," he said, referring to the large American flag at the east entrance of town. "We were able to prepare. We had all the county stuff buttoned down. When the storm came we were fortunate, it doesn’t sound like it hit us as hard as other communities. The day before we had equipment all loaded up. Being prepared made it easier to react."

Everett said that with the preparation the Road Department, Parks Department, Anaconda Pintler Search and Rescue and the Attic Abatement Team "were able to react immediately. It made it a little better. We had eight or nine trees blocking streets that we were able to react to."

Findenergy.com reported that 1,247 out of 9,374 tracked meters (13.3%) in ADLC were without power on Wednesday. Everett said that NorthWestern Energy "was fantastic" dealing with the outages, and "all our emergency backups worked as planned."

Beyond power lines there was some damage reported throughout town, including to a garage on the west side of Anaconda that a tree had fallen onto. Everett said that about a dozen light globes on the city's historic street lights also had blown off, and a light pole on The Forge's property had come down, but said it wasn't part of the county's streetlight system. 

"A trampoline set sail across the Old Works Golf Course, that would've been a sight," Everett said. 

While there were no injuries reported, one notable victim of the wind storm was the Thompson's Bar sign, which was pictured in Wednesday's Anaconda Leader hanging by a thread but ultimately did blow down and was destroyed. It appears to have been more iconic than historic, however, as the bar's previous owner, Duane Brugman, confirmed that it was not the bar's original sign but rather had been added in the late 1960s or early 1970s. It's been part of the look of Main Street for that entire time, however, until now. 

Everett said the Road Department was able to help with that, and that ADLC had crews on duty into the evening in case another burst of high winds kicked up. 

"We are the community’s response team so let’s help whenever we can," Everett said.