Couple escape flames lapping at their doorstep

Dan Kruger didn’t even have time to put on shoes before fleeing the flames of the Bierney Creek Fire, which came within five feet of his Lakeside home by the time he got out Monday afternoon.

“I got outside and there were flames right alongside the house and stumps burning, and I thought, ‘Whoa!’ I grabbed the garden hose and then thought, ‘Well, this ain’t gonna cut it,’” he said. “By the time my wife and I left, the back of my shirt had holes in it from the cinders.”

After an aggressive response from local, state and federal firefighters, the fire’s initial wind-driven run had been held at about 80 acres by Monday night, but threatened as many as 100 structures in the residential area west of Lakeside. No structures burned in the fire.

Kruger and his wife, Denet, live year-round in their retirement home at the top of a hill on Lone Wolf Trail. Several other residents and summer-home dwellers down the road also left their houses as powerful gusts whipped the Bierney Creek Fire through the neighborhood’s sun-baked forestlands.

The Krugers jumped in the car, peeling out past a pair of fire department water tenders parked in front of his garage. On the drive down, the Krugers beat on neighbors’ doors to alert them to the growing blaze and called those who weren’t home to tip them off. One of the neighbors loaned him a pair of sandals.

Another neighbor, Tim Keeler, was in Kalispell with his wife when Kruger called him. After driving to Lakeside, Keeler said one of the firefighters at the vehicle closure allowed him through briefly to check on his cabin. Seeing the smoke plume rising from the ridge, he described his initial feeling as “terror.”

Driving up the hill, he said he looked up at a tall tree he can always spot from downhill, marking his property on the ridge.

“I was just like, ‘Oh no, we just bought that place and here goes all our dreams, up in smoke.’” Keeler said. “They let us get up there real quick, and we weren’t up there three minutes before a DNRC firefighter came up on an ATV.”

A heavy airplane tanker was about to drop another load of retardant on the area, the firefighter said. Keeler looked up as the lead plane buzzed overhead. He guessed it was about 50 feet above him.

“If it wasn’t for those firefighters and those helicopters, it would have been toast up there,” Keeler said. “There’s a lot of people that had a lot more to lose than we did.”

Kruger said several firefighters noted that his auspicious yard work earlier in the year likely helped save the structure. Although flames were lapping at his porch, he said they could have easily spread to a pair of trees and some bushes that he removed earlier this year.

“They kept mentioning to us that we had a great firewall, with all the brush taken out and everything, and that it was just a smart thing to do,” he said. “It wasn’t really smart thinking on our part. We were just clearing brush.”

He gave more credit to the firefighters’ quick response, which he believes saved dozens of other homes in the densely wooded neighborhood.

“There’s red retardant all around the house and windows, but the firemen really did a super job,” he said. “You say ‘Thank you,’ but you really have a deep feeling for these guys. It’s hard, dirty work and I can really appreciate what they do.”

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.