Fire still burning in industrial park

A compost pile of waste material has been burning off and on since the beginning of this week at the Kootenai Industrial Park, according to Libby Volunteer Fire Department Fire Marshal Steve Lauer.

According to Lauer, the fire initially started up on Sunday morning, and the fire department was able to extinguish the burn with two tanks of water. Lauer said that they expected that it would pick back up again after Sunday, and on Wednesday they received a call, informing them that there was smoke coming from the area.

“The problem is that it’s burning underneath and all of that small material is difficult to see,” Lauer said.

Lauer said that, while there’s a threat that it could blow up onto the grass, he doesn’t expect that to happen.

“It’s in a secure area, there’s no structures damaged or anything as of yet,” Lauer said.

“It’s burning so hot down there, that’s what caused it. We can’t just get to the seed of it,” Lauer said. “We just knocked it down so that it’s not open-burning now.”

The fire department turned the scene over to Port Authority yesterday, and Lauer said that he hasn’t heard anything from them as of Thursday.

Reporter Bethany Rolfson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at Reporter@TheWesternNews.com.