Two people and a dog escaped from a house fire Saturday afternoon, but officials say the structure is likely a total loss.
Homeowner Jerry Kane, his roommate and Kane’s black Lab, Poppy,sat inside his pickup truck in the driveway of the home trying to stay warm, while firefighters worked to contain the blaze.
Haines Volunteer Fire Department received a call at 1:58 p.m. about the structure fire. The caller described flames coming from behind the home.
Kane said the call likely came from someone who stopped to tell him that his one-story Tower Road house was on fire.
“He didn’t even know how to say anything; he was just pointing,” Kane said.
Kane said he and his roommate attempted to put the fire out.
“I ran and got the fire extinguisher,” he said. “Then we tried to hook the hose up, which was already frozen,” he said, pausing and then putting his head in his hands. “God, I thought I had it. I thought I had it.”
Haines Fire Chief Brian Clay said when two fire trucks and an ambulance arrived, the back of the house was on fire, and a connecting line to a nearby fuel tank was burning.
“The flames were above the roof of the house,” Clay said. “They were burning through the roof in some places. It was lighting the spruce trees on fire.”
The house sits on a heavily wooded lot with a neighbor’s house nearby, which meant firefighters had to work quickly to prevent the flames from spreading. Wind, which according to the National Weather Service predictions, gusted up to 30 miles per hour, complicated their efforts.
“We did get some embers that flew over and caught a couple spots [on a] swhed,” Clay said. “There were some sparks up there, but we were able to put that out.”
By 3:06 p.m., Clay said they extinguished the main fire and fire crews were mopping up hot spots.
He said the fire marshall likely will not come to do an inspection, so Clay and battalion chief Scott Bradford will determine the cause.
Right now, Clay said the two believe a chimney fire was the cause.
“It was right in the center of the house,” Clay said. “All the wood around the chimney is burned away, and as you go out from there, it’s not as burnt.”
This is the first fire of the year in Haines, Clay said, which surprised him, because this time of year the fire department gets more calls about chimney fires because of creosote buildup.
He said people need to check and clean their chimneys. The fire department has brushes that can be borrowed and used for free.
“People just have to know what size chimney they’ve got,” he said. “We’ll give them the brushes.”
Kane is skeptical a chimney fire was the cause and said he plans to have an inspector come from Juneau.
He said he has insurance and a place to stay, for now. But soon he’ll have to get into his home of 15 years and see what he can recover.
“I have some firearms in there from my grandfather that I’d like to salvage,” he said.