Briefly

CdA doctor finds packages of ammunition outside office

A Coeur d’Alene doctor has filed a stalking report with Coeur d’Alene Police after twice finding packages containing ammunition outside his Ironwood Center Drive office.

Two live 20-gauge shotgun shells and a .357 shell were discovered in a box outside North Idaho Urology on Monday. The rounds of ammunition were wrapped in bubble wrap and inside a small cardboard box, according to police reports.

The box was reportedly placed inside an insulated lab box behind the building.

Dr. William Hall told police a similar package was found in front of the office on Aug. 9.

He said his wife had received a phone call at their home on Aug. 16 and the caller said, “Tell the doctor we know where he lives.”

Later in the month, he said his wife received another call saying: “Next time you hear from me, it will be in person.”

Two thought dead in Montana plane crash hike to safety

Kalispell, Mont. Two survivors of a Monday plane crash in the rugged wilderness of northwest Montana emerged on a highway Wednesday after making their way on foot through the mountains.

The survivors, both U.S. Forest Service employees, made their way out a day after both the Flathead County sheriff and the Forest Service had announced their deaths. Three others died in the crash.

“Initially we thought there were no survivors, but now there are two,” said Denise Germann, a spokeswoman for the Flathead National Forest.

Jodee Hogg, 23, of Billings, Mont., and Matthew Ramige, 29, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., apparently walked away from the crash site and were spotted by a road Wednesday afternoon, Germann said.

They were spotted by a motorist on U.S. 2 who then went to a bar in the Essex area and asked the bartender to call for help.

Hogg was listed in stable condition at Kalispell Regional Medical Center and Ramige was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for burn treatment. Ramige was listed in serious condition.

Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont had said Tuesday that it appeared all five on board died on impact. The crash also started a fire.

The crash scene was above timberline on Mount Liebig, in the Great Bear Wilderness some six air miles northwest of Essex. The area is near the southern edge of Glacier National Park.

Jim Long, 60, of Kalispell, was piloting the plane. Also on board was Ken Good, 58, of Whitefish, an employee of the Flathead National Forest and Davita Bryant, 32, of Whitefish. Hogg, Ramige and Bryant all worked for the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Station in Fort Collins, Colo., but worked out of the station’s office in Ogden, Utah.

“Can you imagine these families?,” asked Bob Bryant, father-in-law of Bryant. “They’ve been told their kids are dead. And now they are resurrected,” he said in a hospital interview with The (Kalispell) Daily Inter Lake.

The airplane crashed during stormy weather while trying to reach a grass landing strip at Schafer Meadows Guard Station, near the Middle Fork of the Flathead River in the Great Bear-Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex south of the park.

The four workers aboard the plane intended to conduct an annual vegetation inventory and repair telecommunication facilities, Germann said.

Spokane firefighters find burning mattress in house

The Spokane Fire Department responded at 10:16 a.m. Wednesday to a report of black smoke coming from the top-story windows of a house on West Spofford.

Firefighters entered the unoccupied home at 1420 W. Spofford and found a mattress on fire.

They quickly extinguished the flames before the house became engulfed, Battalion Chief Bruce Moline said.

Kathy Ross said her cousin, Chris Jennings, owns the home but was not home during the fire.

Ross said Jennings has remodeled the entire interior of the older home.

“He’s done wonders with it,” said Ross, who lives across the street from Jennings’ home. “He is just going to be devastated.”

Moline said crews were making sure they put out all the hot spots and he didn’t know what caused the fire.

Heavy black smoke spewed from the upstairs windows when crews arrived. However, firefighters removed the burning mattress and the smoke was gone within a few minutes.

Firefighters installed large fans to push air through the house.

Jennings lives in the home with his wife and niece, Ross said. Nobody was injured.