Christmas Eve blaze at Mountain Manor

A 93-year-old woman died Christmas Eve

after a fire broke out in a single unit at a Whitefish public

housing apartment building. An autopsy found that Mae Thompson died

of natural causes while smoking. Her lit cigarette caught the

apartment on fire.

Whitefish Fire Department crews

responded to the Mountain View Manor at 7:38 p.m., Captain Justin

Woods reported. When firefighters entered the apartment, they found

the sprinkler system had extinguished the fire, but Thompson was

found dead. The fire was contained to her unit and no one else was

injured in the blaze.

Due to smoke and water damage,

residents in nearby apartment units were moved to two blocks away

to the Calvary Chapel on Baker Avenue. Responding Whitefish police

officer Chris McWhirter attends the church and had keys to the

building. Church Pastor David Halan OK’d moving residents into the

church and McWhirter called Red Cross for assistance.

Emergency workers staged an ambulance

on scene and chaplains were also at the church to lend a hand. A

freezing rain fell during the time of the fire, making is difficult

to transfer residents with disabilities to the chapel.

Some residents were picked up at the

chapel by family members that night, while others were allowed to

return to their apartments once their rooms were deemed to be

OK.

Ten units at the apartment building

remain closed. Adjacent rooms suffered minimal fire and smoke

damage, but some rooms on the lower floor were extensively damaged

by water from the sprinkler system leaking through the floor.

Seven residents who live in the damaged

rooms have been relocated to live with local families. Grouse

Mountain Lodge also volunteered to house two residents at the

hotel.

“It is wonderful to know I can depend

on everyone who has showed up to help,” said Housing Authority

director SueAnn Grogan. Grogan was on the scene Christmas Eve until

2 a.m., making sure residents had their medication, clothing and

were being lined up with housing.

The Mountain View Manor is operated by

the Whitefish Housing Authority as affordable public housing. The

50-unit building was built in 1970 and is designed for seniors and

disabled. The sprinkler system was installed in 2000.

Fire Chief Ton Kennelly noted that the

sprinkler system worked to perfection and contained the fire before

it spread throughout the building.

Grogan said all of the alarms went off

and when the fire hit 155 degrees the sprinkler was activated.

“The system saved lives and the

building,” Grogan said.

She noted that the building is fully

insured and that STAT Restoration is on scene cleaning up. The

damaged rooms could be closed for up to a month. Some of the rooms

need to be torn down to the studs, she said.

“We want to make sure everything is

dry,” Grogan said. “We don’t want mold to start growing.”

This is the first time the building has

caught fire.