Saturday morning fire destroys area home

A Libby area family is without a home this week, as a fire completely consumed their house on Parmenter Drive Saturday morning.

Lincoln County Dispatch was notified of the blaze at 4:15 a.m. Oct. 24 and paged the Libby Volunteer Fire Department, who responded immediately with 14 firefighters, one engine and three water tenders. Crews fought the fire for approximately 10 hours, but due to the nature of the fire were unable to operate inside the structure.

“It was a frustrating fire,” said first assistant chief Steve Lauer. “Because of the severe nature of it, we couldn’t conduct an offensive attack inside the house. We were limited to defensive operations on the fire. It was burning in the basement and it just wasn’t safe to go inside and fight the fire.”

The home’s occupants were not at home at the time of the fire and the family pet was outside, so no civilian injuries were reported as a result of the fire. Lauer said no firefighters were injured during the fire, either.

Lauer said a cause for the fire has yet to be determined. He was unsure if the Sheriff’s Office was going to investigate or if it would fall to the insurance company.

“I don’t have a cause for this one yet,” he said. “The insurance company could be sending in an investigator, we’ll see what happens, but it’s a total loss to the structure and the contents.”