The nonprofit Yellowstone Valley animal shelter in Billings, Montana evacuated its animals after burning drugs into buildings in smoke.
The shelter rents its space from the city of Billings and shares the building with the city’s Animal Control Operation, which houses a crematorium. The city repaired the crematorium in 2024 after the city previously reported a smoke leak. Until Wednesday, there was no further leak to the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter.
Over the years, the shelter was told that the Billings Police Department also used the crematorium to dispose of evidence. The drugs, especially methamphetamine, were destroyed in an unknown crematorium on Wednesday, said Triniti Halverson, executive director of the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter.
According to the Associated Press, the FBI destroyed two pounds of methamphetamine with a crematorium.
“Following a fixed schedule for narcotic destruction, in the program, informing the health department and the documents for each disposal are notified. The Billings Police Department and partner agencies have long used incinerators that are damaged by narcotic destruction,” the Billings Police Department said in a press release.
Police said smoke entered the shelter due to negative pressure. The air pressure in the shelter is lower, so the smoke flows.
Billings Assistant City Chief Executive Kevin Iffaland told AP Friday that the fan that should be used to blow smoke away is “not easy to obtain”.
Once the smoke began to leak, shelter staff covered the scene and drove the animals out of the building.
Ms Halverson said she and 13 other staff members were exposed to methamphetamine smoke and some were sick. Then, they went to a local hospital for treatment.
The most affected animals were locked in another Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter building, where a local veterinary clinic also helps treat animals in the shelter. The main building of the shelter will be closed for two weeks to one month, while the building is purified.
Mr. Efaran and Ms. Halverson said about 75 dogs and cats had been relocated.
