BUTTE — The Butte Fire Department is busy doing maintenance on all their equipment after a very busy weekend having to put out four structure fires in a 12-hour period.
“Having four fires like that is a very rare event. Butte will have maybe a fire a month like that, but having four in a 12-hour period is very rare,” said Capt. Matthew Dobley of the Butte Fire Department.
The first fire was reported at about a quarter to six Saturday evening, Oct. 5, to an unoccupied structure off Elizabeth Warren. Just after midnight on Oct. 6, heavy smoke was reported coming out of a home on West Silver Street.
Within 20 minutes of each other, there was a fire in a barn off Little Basin Creek Road and a fire in a home on Easy Street. The Butte Fire Department had the support of volunteer departments.
“Going from one fire to another, fighting a fire like that is very taxing on us, but to have four like that is huge, so having all the resources that we did was great,” said Dobley.
The causes of the fires are still under investigation; however, fire officials do not suspect they are connected to each other.
Though it was a busy 12 hours, fire officials are happy with the way firefighters responded.
“We got to still cover the city for any medical calls, the other car fires that also happened that day, so it was just really taxing on our personnel, but we really rose to the top to make sure our city’s protected,” he said.
No injuries were reported in these incidents.
