Wild Horse Mercantile fire ruled an accident
(Courtesy Photo) The aftermatch of the fire that devastated the Wild Horse Mercantile on Oct. 9.
BONNERS FERRY — The Wild Horse Mercantile, located in the Round Prairie area on U.S. 95 and owned by Ray and Beth Holmes, suffered a devastating fire on Oct. 9, 2018.
And after three months of investigation, the fire has been ruled an accident.
The call went out around 3 a.m. and Hall Mountain Volunteer Fire Department responded. When they arrived on scene the restaurant portion of the building was fully engulfed.
After thorough investigation, and multiple trips to the business to sort through the damage, the fire is now deemed accidental.
“The fire started back in the washroom,” said Boundary County Sheriff Detective David McClelland. “Our lead investigator, David Winey, went back several times and was finally able to narrow down that it was a high resistance connection — in other words there was some gap in the dryer plug.”
“It is not arson, it is non-suspicious, they didn’t start it — it was a bad electrical connection, simple as that,” said McClelland.