Page 11 - Flathead Beacon // 10.14.15

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NEWS
Undersheriff: Investigators Cannot Determine
Cause of Deadly Motor Home Fire Eight-year-old girl died of smoke inhalation and burns, autopsy says
BY MOLLY PRIDDY OF THE BEACON
The investigation is complete into
the Oct. 1 motor home fire that killed an 8-year-old Kalispell girl, with the cause of death cited as smoke inhalation and “thermal injuries” from the fire.
According to Flathead County Under- sheriff Dave Leib, the autopsy on Autumn Hawk showed that she died from breath- ing too much smoke and from burns. Leib said there is also a toxicology screening report forthcoming.
Flathead County Dispatch received a report of explosions and fire at the motor home, located west of Kalispell at 425 Daley Ln., near Foys Lake. Responding fire crews found the motor home fully engulfed in flames.
Because it burned so hot and so fast, Leib said the team investigating the fire could not find a cause.
“We don’t have a cause,” Leib said in an interview on Oct. 8. “In a fire like this where it burns so extremely hot... there’s nothing of evidentiary value left.”
Smith Valley Fire Chief DC Haas said motor home fires can be tricky when it comes to identifying a single cause, because there are so many sources of fuel involved. Leib said along with the motor home fuels, there were also bottles of white fuel used for camping stoves that had exploded in the blaze.
The girl’s parents made it out of the fire alive, and were treated for injuries. Hawk’s body was found outside of the trailer, near the front door.
Leib said at this point the investiga- tion into the fire is essentially complete, and any potential charges against anyone involved would have to come from a dif- ferent investigation.
He said the girl’s parents are “a lit- tle uncertain as to exactly how the fire started,” and the mother said she was cooking on the stove and Hawk was in the top bunk in the motor home.
A group of upset neighbors who live near the fire scene planned to meet with
The investigation continues into what started a motor home fire west of Kalispell that killed an 8-year-old girl. The scene of the fire, 425 Daley Lane near Foys Lake, is pictured Oct. 6. GREG LINDSTROM
FLATHEAD BEACON
the Flathead County Attorney on Oct. 13 to discuss their concerns with the inves- tigation and other details about life on Daley Lane before the fire.
The Kalispell office of the Child and Family Services Division referred questions about the family to the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. Spokesman Jon Ebelt said the department cannot comment on the sit- uation due to privacy laws.
Another group of residents held a can- dlelight vigil for Hawk on Oct. 9 at the Peterson Elementary School playground at 7:30 p.m.
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Judge Approves Grizzly Bear Protection
Settlement North of Whitefish
Conservation groups pleased with new grizzly security zones that allow some logging
BY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
A federal judge on Friday approved a settlement between conservation groups and state officials that will protect more than 22,000 acres of grizzly bear habitat while still allowing logging in two state forests north of Whitefish.
The settlement, initially approved by the state Land Board on Aug. 29, cre- ates restrictions designed to minimize disturbances to grizzly bears in seven “security zones” totaling 34 square miles in the Stillwater and Coal Creek state for- ests, north of Whitefish.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy approved the settlement on Oct. 9.
The agreement resolves a lawsuit filed in 2013 by Friends of the Wild Swan, the Montana Environmental Information Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council, against the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
“This agreement ensures protection for the last, best grizzly bear habitat remaining on state lands in Montana,” said Timothy Preso, an attorney with Earthjustice who represented the groups in negotiating the agreement.
Under the settlement, no permanent roads would be built in the security zones, logging would be barred except when bears are in their dens for winter, and then only below an elevation of 6,300 feet. The state also would avoid or min- imize helicopter flights over the zones.
The groups challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2012 approval of the state’s Habitat Conservation Plan covering 856 square miles of state trust land in western Montana. They com- plained the state’s plan weakened exist- ing protections for threatened species’ habitat within the forests, which are part of the larger Northern Continen- tal Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) that is a
grizzly bear stronghold.
Judge Molloy ruled the Fish and Wild-
life Service’s analysis of the state’s plan fell short of what is required by the U.S. Endangered Species Act. He ordered an injunction last year that prevented Mon- tana from carrying out its habitat con- servation plan in the two state forests, but allowed the plan to be implemented in other areas.
In approving the settlement, Molloy lifted that injunction.
The agreement promises grizzly con- servation for decades, said Arlene Mont- gomery of Friends of the Wild Swan.
“Even if the area’s grizzlies are some- day removed from the protections of the Endangered Species Act, these protec- tive measures will endure because they will be incorporated into the conserva- tion strategy for long-term grizzly man- agement,” Montgomery said.
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OCTOBER 14, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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