Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
A fire at an administrative building at the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation has the reservation officials looking for a third place to house the 90-some students of the parochial St. Paul Mission School. “The tribe is going to make every effort to secure a site and we’re working on that right now,” Bum Stiffarm, chief administrative officer for the rese r va t i on, s a i d thi s mo rning . “Unfortunately, the school children are without a classroom right now.” A fire was reported shortly after 4 this morning at the John Capture Center in Hays, St i f farm said. Volunteer firefighters from Hays, Lodge Pole, Fort Belknap, Harlem and Chinook responded and contained the fire by 9 a.m., he said. The tribal government had allowed the St. Paul Mission School to use the building after it lost its original historic school building in a fire last June. “They made do,” he said, adding, “It was a little cramped.” Stiffarm said the fire apparently started in the boiler room of the building, and he does not expect the investigation to reveal any criminal activity. The major damage, primarily smoke and water damage, was in the boiler room, the stage area of the building and to the roof of a small gymnasium, he said. No one was in the building when the fire was reported by some passers by, Stiffarm said. A few people were Treated for smoke inhalation caused during the firefighting, but seem to be all right, he said. No one else was injured in the fire.
