LAUREL – The floor and furniture coated with debris and a
2-inch-thick layer of a sooty, spongy mix of ash and damp
firefighting foam, Victor and Merry Bachmeier and their family
sifted through the rubble of what just 36 hours earlier was
their home, looking for anything they could salvage.
“These ones, we might be able to hopefully get them restored,”
Victor Bachmeier said, holding up a pair of framed family
photos. “I hope we can restore them.”
Fire destroyed the family's mobile home in Laurel on
Friday morning but, despite the loss, they're holding up.
“We're doing ok,” Bachmeier said on Saturday. “We all made it
out and are alive, thank God for that, which is the most
important thing.”
The fire broke out at about 5 a.m. Friday in the family's
mobile home, at 710 Fir Ave. Bachmeier said that when he woke
up to get ready for his job at the BNSF railroad complex in
Laurel, he and his wife smelled smoke.
After checking their room and a nearby bathroom, Bachmeier
walked toward the front of the trailer, where his 17-year-old
son, Timothie, and 9-year-old stepson, Jesse Frazer, were
sleeping and noticed the fire.
He woke everybody — his wife, the two children and his elderly
grandmother – and told them to get out of the house.
“I tried calling 911 on my cell phone but it wasn't working,”
he said. “So my wife, she ran next door and she's banging on
the neighbor's window yelling, 'Call 911!'”
The neighbor reported the fire and the family could only watch
as flames began bursting from their home's windows.
“It just happened so quick and the flames were everywhere,”
Bachmeier said. “I went up real fast but it's like it was in
slow motion. The fire department got here pretty fast but it
seemed like it took forever.”
Laurel Volunteer Fire Department firefighters quickly doused
the fire, but not before it gutted the home, leading Deputy
Fire Marshal Rlynn Halvorson to declare it a total loss Friday.
Investigators have a good idea of what started the blaze -
Halvorson said it appears to be unintentional – but won't
release it until they make an official determination, likely to
happen early next week.
Damage from the fire is evident outside the home, with a large
hole burned out in the center of its south side heavy scorching
along what little is left of the roof.
But inside is a different story. Large holes in the roof from
the fire and efforts to fight it break up the ceiling. Charred
household items – games, food, decorations – are scattered
about. Just about everything is damaged, destroyed or covered
in rubble, ash and drying foam.
Family members, including Bachmeier's parents, Mike and Gloria,
rushed to help and spent Saturday giving them a hand.
“We got the call at about five yesterday morning and we hit the
road to come from Helena as soon as we got the call,” Gloria
Bachmeier said.
The family has a list — one they didn't start keeping until
Friday morning — of people they'd like to thank for helping so
quickly and generously after the fire that would likely fill a
few pages of notebook paper.
At the top of that list is Pastor Paul McElroy and the Mountain
Family Fellowship church in Helena, who gave several hundred
dollars to the family. Mark Nielson, a co-worker of
Bachmeier's, has been helping them gather and haul donations,
and employees from BNSF and Chemtron have offered support.
His brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Cathy Bachmeier,
have already given them a new couch. Merry Bachmeier's sister,
Donna Lyons, is gathering donations from her home in Alaska,
and Victor's sister is doing the same in New Jersey.
Pastor Bob and Pam Evans, also from Helena, have offered
support and the American Red Cross of Montana has put the
family up in a local hotel for the next few days and gave them
a prepaid debit card loaded with money. Wal-Mart donated
clothing, the Laurel ConoMart gave them a gas voucher and
Christina Linguista gave them a bunk bed. An anonymous woman
named Dorothy donated furniture and other items.
The list goes on, including the Laurel police, fire and
ambulance services, but the Bachmeiers said the entire
community has been extremely supportive.
“Thanks to all, no matter what you did to help,” Gloria
Bachmeier said. “Whatever, whoever, thanks to everybody who
helped and donated.”
As for her son and his family, they're now trying to find a new
place to live after spending 2.5 years in the trailer.
Bachmeier hopes to get that worked out soon but, in the
meantime, is simply glad everybody's alright.
“It means a lot for us, that everybody's OK and how much the
community's helped out,” he said. “Mostly though, I want to
thank God, all praise to Him, that we're still alive.”
Read more:
Laurel family in good spirits, thankful to community after fire destroys home
Tags:
a-gas-voucher,
cathy-bachmeier,
deputy,
from-the-fire,
house,
merry-bachmeier,
mountain,
trailer