Fire at the Stones' house

Sunday afternoon was a bit exciting at the Stones' house. A stack fire caught the roof on fire, and four fire departments came to the rescue: Ester, Chena-Goldstream, University, and Steese. The Fairbanks Fire Department was at the ready, too, just in case, but somebody had to sit tight to man the rest of the area. They had a backup tanker (Kris Chandler, Ester resident and Fairbanks Fire employee, had to stay at the station and grit his teeth while a house in his back yard burned).

There are now three big holes in the roof and lots of charring (and busted windows and frozen plants and lots of ice), but at least the Stones still have a house, unlike Kim and Kevin, who lost everything in the house fire that they suffered the week before. The neighborhood showed up to help carry out burnables and freezeables (both in the form of Ester volunteer firefighters and your general neighbor-types) after it was safe to go in. We saw Billingtons, Camerons, neighbor Sandy, Hillary (she gave me and our various shop-vacs a ride up), Chris Martian, and a bunch of people I didn't know by name. Tom Richardson, Mark Simpson, Ryan Williams, Cameron Wohlford, JD Ragan, Dan Weatherly, and a few others I knew were the firefighters there, plus a bunch of others I didn't know (probably from the other volunteer fire departments).

It was pretty amazing. The firefighters did a great job, with not too much water damage (although the windows blew out when the steam hit them). One of the trucks got stuck on the way out (the Stones' driveway is a killer). Thank god for the Ester Volunteer Fire Department--and all the rest of them who showed up. Amy and Don got photos, some of which will be in the January Republic.

The next day a few of us went up and tidied the studio so it is now semi-habitable (this is where we hauled all the stuff the night before). I haven't talked to the Stones yet, but man, what a thing to come home to (they were in Utah--and their housesitter was none too happy either).