Fire Guts Garage Near Southgate Mall

A column of smoke could be seen rising above Missoula Yesterday near Southgate Mall. Missoula City Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Brandt says crews were called out to a structure fire on Schilling Street at about 9:00 a.m.

"We had a fully involved structure fire over there: a garage/shop, that caught on fire," said Bradt. "We responded with our normal compliment of fire apparatus. On scene we found the structure fully involved and crews were able to knock that down. The structure sustained a lot of damage as well as the contents inside... there were several vehicles."

The fire took less than a half hour to bring to an end, but it still managed to destroy upwards of 80,000 dollars worth of property. Some neighbors reported that a person was in the garage.

"There were initial reports that someone might have been inside," Brandt said. "But as soon as we knocked down the fire and did a primary search there was no one inside, which was good."

The cause of the fire and the estimated value of all of the destroyed vehicles and property is still under investigation.

.