Man rescued from burning house

When he got a call from dispatch to respond to a man trapped in a burning building in St. Regis, all St. Regis Volunteer Fire Chief Jerry Dockter was thinking about was the training he and his team had received two weeks earlier.

“To me, training is essential,” Dockter said.

Eight firefighters responded to the call on Main Street with the department’s tender and pumper trucks.

“You really don’t ever want to go into a burning building if you can help it, the dangers to firefighters are extraordinary,” said West End Volunteer Fire Chief Bruce Charles.

But that is exactly what the St. Regis Volunteer Firefighters planned to do.

Three firefighters, dressed in protective clothing and Self Contained Breathing Apparatuses (SCBA), entered the burning apartment building to extinguish the blaze while Dockter went to the window of the burning building with a ladder to try to help the trapped man, whose name has not yet been released.

According to Dockter the man, who was trapped on the second floor of the building, was partially on fire when he arrived at the window.

Dockter helped him out of the building and began to help him down the ladder. Half way down he fell off the ladder and dropped 10 feet to the ground.

Dockter said that his brother, Gary Dockter, helped take some of the brunt of the man’s fall and prevented him from injuring his head.

The team that went into the building had the fire out within 15 minutes according to Dockter and only one unit of the fourplex apartment building was damaged.

“It made a huge difference being able to go into the building and get the fire at its source rather than trying to spray water in through the windows,” said Dockter.

Dockter said that, thanks to their new SCBAs that they received with a $120,000 Federal Emergency Management Association Assistance to Firefighters Grant, they were able to attack the fire much more directly.

“It just made it so much safer for the firefighters going into the smoke filled building,” Dockter said.

The department also got a chance to try out their new equipment during a training exercise with the Montana State University Fire Service Training School in which they practiced with a live burn. They used the school’s portable “burn trailer” and an extremely flammable material called excelsior to simulate burn situations and fire behavior.

“It just goes to show you that practice makes perfect,” Dockter said.

Charles, who did not get a call from dispatch to help with the fire but did participate in the burn trailer exercise, said that he is always impressed with how the St. Regis firefighters handle themselves.å

“They’re really a first class organization,” Charles said.

The burned man was immediately transported to the Mineral County Hospital and air lifted to the Missoula Community Hospital. From there he was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

“I’m just glad to know he’s alive,” Dockter said.

He said that so far there is no conclusion as to what caused the blaze, but the department has their own ideas as to how the fire happened.

“There’s suspicion that there was an electrical short out in the kitchen,” Dockter explained. “I haven’t heard the official report yet but that’s kind of my suspicion.”

The other two occupants to the building were back in their homes later that day, after the gas lines had been checked and cleared.

To reward the brave firefighters, the owner of the apartment building cooked them dinner at the fire hall Monday night.

Dockter said that while they appreciated the food, the real honor was in knowing that lives were safer because of their work.

“That state fire training kind of got us on our toes again and it was a great pat on the shoulder to know that you can actually save someone,” Dockter said.