Monday, October 24, 2011

The Gateway, Best Dam Bar by a Dam Site


On Saturday, October 22nd, one of the oldest establishments in the Glasgow Fort Peck area burnt to the ground. The call went out at about 11:30am (just after Landon and Wyatt got back from a morning deer hunt) that there was a structure fire at the Gateway. About 7 minutes later the Fort Peck Fire Department told dispatch that Fort Peck 1 was en route with Holte, Lott, and Scanlan (other men to quickly follow). The Gateway is only a few minutes, about 3 miles at most, from the Town of Fort Peck. Around here all the fire departments work together since they are all volunteers. Valley County's Long Run Fire Department was also paged and responded within about 30 minutes (Glasgow, Long Run's base, is 20 miles away, so 30 minutes isn't that long). The Fort Peck Fire Department had a great turnout with 11 out of 13 members responding to the fire; one fireman and the chief were out of town.
Not long after the first page and by the time the fire departments started spraying water the building was completely engulfed. There was nothing the firemen could do to save the bar and the fire even spread to some fields but was quickly put out in spite of the wind we had that day. The firemen put the fire out quite quick but it continued to smolder and some firemen spent the night on scene until the fire marshal could conduct his investigation on Sunday.
Our favorite fireman.

Only one man was hurt in the fire when he (the bar owner) ran back in for some keys. He suffered from smoke inhalation and was flown to Billings and spent a few days in ICU. Last we heard he was out of ICU but still in the hospital. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The Gateway was used for everything, Bachelor/Bachelorette parties, Senior Citizens meals, Christmas parties, Walleye's Unlimited Tournament rules meetings, The Thunder from Down Under, and the list goes on and on. It will be missed by many. I didn't take any of these pictures and other than the first one, I don't know who took them.

1 comment:

The Fast Family said...

THanks for documenting this! We were really curious when we heard about it...we were out of town in Great Falls. Sad story!

As for my blog...I'm working on it. We have had a bit of a change here in our lives in the past month...we now have a 17 year old daughter! I'll have to do a post...you'll have to read it there! HOPEFULLY I get to it sooner than later! HUGS!

LOVED LOVED LOVED Carter's message to Natalie!