MILES CITY – A fire that destroyed a block of downtown Miles City was all but out Tuesday but barricades stayed up because of the high risk of falling brick walls.
“Those structures are going to have to come down,” said Tod Miller, Miles City Fire Department battalion chief.
Several burned-out buildings in a three-quarter-block long stretch of Main Street collapsed into the middle of the street.
“Did any of the newspapers mention how lucky we were that we didn’t lose a life, like they did in Bozeman?” said restaurant owner Gloria Grenz, as she refilled patrons’ water glasses at the Hole in the Wall restaurant.
Grenz said she tallied 15 businesses that were shuttered by the disaster.
On the second floor of a pharmacy that survived the fire, but was badly smoke damaged, several apartments had to be evacuated. Mayor Joe Whalen said the tenants would be allowed back in on Tuesday.
Fire crews were beginning to investigate the cause of the fire, which Miller said was believed to have started in a vacant building being remodeled in the center of the block.