by Travis Mateer
First, the I told you so part of this post that confirms yesterday’s speculation (emphasis mine):
Birk acknowledged that she went into the shed and fell asleep. She stated that when she woke up, the whole shed was on fire. She advised that she was nearly burned alive. Birk stated that she did not have a phone, so she went to the nearest hotel to call 911 but realized that firetrucks were already on the way.
Birk admitted that she cooked dinner inside the shed. She built a fire with sheets of paper. She “assumed” that she used a lighter to start the fire. She built the fire on a metal sheet located in the middle of the small shed. She believed that the fire was out when she fell asleep.
She surmised that an ember might have sparked a tarp she was laying on but was unsure how the fire actually started. Birk let the fire burn for up to a half an hour while she warmed her food. Birk claimed that before going to sleep, she poured water on the fire and tried to stomp it out with her feet. She added, “I’m sorry if I caused a big problem.”
Not much else to say except please uncritically give the United Way money and never ask why all this homelessness has gotten worse as the director has lectured citizens about getting TOO involved in coming up with their own direct-action-solutions.
The second part of this brief post is a clarification that Andrea Davis, according to the Mayor’s Office, did NOT say there are 3,000 refugee/immigrants in Missoula.
Instead, according to the sources familiar with this meeting where this number was discussed, the number was offered to Mayor Davis, and she said it was probably accurate. It sounds like Mayor Davis better work on her messaging regarding who is in Missoula, and what kind of pressures subsidizing housing for refugees creates while our local homeless population burn down private property despite ALL the options currently available to them.
Stay tuned, I’ll report on all this as much as I am able.
