FBI Uses Animal Shelter Incinerator for Drug Burn, Sickening 14

Methamphetamine-laced smoke sickened 14 employees at an animal shelter in Montana, officials said, after FBI agents used a furnace meant for animal cremation to incinerate the drugs.

Fumes filled the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter in Billings as FBI officials incinerated two pounds of methamphetamine at the site Wednesday, prompting a “complete evacuation” of the building, city officials and executive director Triniti Halverson said.

“When the smoke started pouring out of one of our feline isolation rooms, I instructed staff to put on COVID masks and begin evacuating the animals,” Halverson said Saturday in a statement. “[Thirteen] staff members and I were exposed to the smoke for approximately an hour, and several began feeling ill.”

The shelter shares a 9,000-square-foot facility with Billings’ animal control division, which has an animal crematorium at the site. Staffers had previously been told that authorities used the incinerator to dispose of evidence, but details were never confirmed, Halverson said.

“I can firmly and confidently say that, as the executive director, I did not know that they were disposing of extremely dangerous narcotics onsite,” she said, adding that her greatest fears were later realized. “My team and my animals had been confirmed to have been exposed to meth.”

FBI spokesperson Sandra Barker told Newsweek that the agency and local authorities “routinely use” facilities to conduct controlled drug evidence burns. She referred additional inquiries to officials in Billings.

Billings police confirmed in a statement Thursday that a partner agency burned methamphetamine inside the incinerator as it experienced a “negative pressure issue” that pushed smoke inside the shelter.

“Staff on scene were able to evacuate the dog side of the shelter and the cats were also moved outside,” Billings police said in a statement obtained by Newsweek.

Assistant City Administrator Kevn Iffland told KRTV law enforcement authorities use the incinerator every Wednesday to dispose of confiscated narcotics.

“We don’t run any exhaust fans, anything even like a dryer out there that creates that negative pressure, so it doesn’t want to suck that smoke back into the building,” Iffland told the station. “There were established protocols for those things to happen to not create that negative pressure, and then there was another thing in place that there was a four-foot fan out there that if there was issues that started to arise, that we could turn that on to negate some of that negative pressure with the smoke.”

The cause of the incident remains under investigation, Iffland said.

During the drug burn, thick smoke quickly filled the animal shelter, community engagement coordinator Izzy Zalenski told KRTV. The facility shares a ventilation system with the incinerator, she said.

“It’s never smelled like that before,” Zalenski said. “The HVAC system is the exact same as a typical office. It’s not made for an animal shelter.”

Staff at the animal shelter reported smoke entering the facility from the crematorium late in 2023, leading to repairs the following year, Halverson said.

“YVAS had not experienced issues since then until 9/10/25,” her statement continued. “Over the years during complaints filed to the city, YVAS staff had been told that the police department was using the incinerator to dispose of ‘evidence,’ one time even mentioning that the evidence was at times ‘drugs.’ However, no details were ever confirmed.”

Halverson said she and 13 staffers spent three hours in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to prevent short- and long-term effects of toxic smoke inhalation.

Roughly 70 animals at the shelter were safely evacuated and have since been relocated or placed in foster homes, KRTV reported.

All of the employees were later released from the hospital as of early Thursday, but it’s unclear when the facility will reopen.

“I’m super frustrated because I feel like this could have been prevented,” Halverson told KRTV. “We’ve recorded this several times. We have written letters. The fact that it is continuing to happen, and I had 14 staff members exposed to smoke inhalation from methamphetamine, plus all of my animals, is not OK, and it should have been prevented.”

Donations to the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter, including supplies, can be made on the organization’s website.