By Associated Press - Wednesday, May 13, 2015

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) - A fire official says a large landfill fire north of Kalispell started when the operator of a front-end loader was moving appliances in a 900-ton pile and hit something that sparked.

The Daily Inter Lake reports (https://bit.ly/1F713T1) Assistant Fire Chief Russ Sappington with West Valley Fire and Rescue said the operator saw the spark turn into a flame and tried unsuccessfully to scoop it out.

Flathead County Solid Waste landfill operations manager Jim Chilton said an on-site water tanker wasn’t enough to put out the blaze. Eventually seven fire departments responded and put out the fire before 9 p.m.

No injuries were reported.

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Information from: Daily Inter Lake, https://www.dailyinterlake.com

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