Family left homeless by fire, but toddler rescued

Fire destroyed a doublewide mobile home Saturday night, leaving a family of seven homeless, but safe.

The home, located on Whitefish Stage Road, was fully engulfed in flames when Evergreen fire department arrived on the scene at 10:30 p.m., according to Evergreen fire chief Don Doty.

Jubalee Sizemore was standing just outside the home with four of her five children when the fire started. Her husband, Darrell, was still at work.

"My baby's in there," Sizemore later said she screamed.

Moments after, Kurtis McGathy and Dana Attill ran into the burning house, grabbed two-year old Jazmyn Sizemore out of her crib and carried her to safety.

"I was just sitting in my car out there near the fire, so when I saw the flames I ran in," McGathy said. "I couldn't see nothing inside because of the fire. We must have been in and out of there in 30 seconds."

The source of the fire was thought to be a pan of oil overheating on the electric stove in the kitchen area of the house.

Jerry Snell, owner of six of the mobile homes in the court, including the one that caught fire, said that the home had three-bedrooms and one bath. It was built in either 1966 or 1968.

"I have insurance, but it's not a big enough policy," Snell said.

The Sizemore family had just moved into the home four days previously. There were still cardboard boxes of belongings that had yet to be brought into the house.

"Darrell and Jubalee [Sizemore] were renting another trailer from me just across the way and it was too small for them. So, when this one came open, they moved in here," Snell said.

Neighbors said that the people who lived in the court were like family.

"We tried to get the cardboard boxes away from the fire for them, but the flames were terrible and we had to give up," said Jessica McGathy, a neighbor. "The whole thing just went up in two minutes."

The fire was hot enough to break the windows on the mobile home just across the way from the Sizemore residence.

Doty called the fire a "mutual response fire," with Evergreen being first on the scene and West Valley, Smith Valley, Kalispell and South Kalispell fire departments following soon after.

Sizemore said she had no renters insurance and that none of their belongs was salvageable.

During the fire, she had been unable to move her Voyager van - which had been parked next to the house - because the keys were still inside the residence. One side of the vehicle was badly charred.

In addition to the seven Sizemores, there were two other people living in the mobile home.

The Kalispell Center of the American Red Cross responded to the emergency by providing shelter, food and clothing.

The last fire crews left the scene at 2:30 a.m.