Downtown carriage house fire injures one resident, kills two pets

Leona Callahan smelled the smoke before hearing the sirens.

“I didn’t see any flames but there was a lot of smoke,” Callahan said. “When they started breaking the windows out, then you could really see the plumes.”

Callahan lives across the street from the downtown carriage house, located between Tracey Avenue and Black Avenue, and was at home when the house caught fire around 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Fire trucks swerved in as Callahan watched from the street, hoses running in both directions down the block.

The property is a transitional residence owned by Human Resource Development Council, a non-profit organization focused on housing. HRDC Communications director Vanessa Palmer said one individual inside sustained injuries in the fire and was taken to the hospital for medical treatment.

“Our immediate focus is ensuring impacted residents have safe temporary lodging, essential supplies, and ongoing support services,” Palmer said.

The family’s pet dog and cat did not survive the blaze.

Bozeman Fire Department Deputy Chief of Operations James Short said the call came in around 1:20 p.m. Firefighters worked to secure the scene for more than an hour.

“It took a little while to check the attic to make sure that there wasn’t any more fire burning into hidden compartments,” Short said. “We’re still checking to make sure that there are no toxic gases or risks of other things happening, like structure collapse.”

By 2:30 p.m., the firefighters were largely done with their work. Short declined to assess the damage until the investigation concludes, but the second-floor windows were broken and exposed an interior fully blackened and burnt.

“We’ll do the preliminary investigation,” Short said. “Once we’re satisfied that we’ve taken it as far as we can, we’ll turn it back over to the property owners, which is HRDC.”

The cause of the fire, Short said, will also be determined in the investigation.

When the call came in, all Bozeman Fire Department personnel and apparatus responded, Short said, along with mutual aid partners Central Valley Fire, Fort Ellis Fire, Hyalite Fire, Bozeman Police Department, and the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office.