Rebuilding a life from ashes

eff Tautges does not like to linger in what is left of his charred second-story St. Regis apartment.

“I can’t be in here for too long, it just gives me the willies,” Tautges said Wednesday morning while collecting up some of the few of his possessions that were not destroyed in a July 28 fire.

Maybe it is the burnt smell that permeates the apartment, maybe it is the empty, charred cat dishes that occupy the floor of one room or maybe it is the way all of his fire-scorched possessions sit eerily in their usual positions.

Maybe it is because in this apartment, Tautges almost lost his life.

“They say your whole life flashes in front of your eyes when you think you’re going to die. Well, they’re right,” Tautges said.

Tautges had just fallen asleep on that fateful Monday morning around 1:30 a.m. when he smelled smoke coming from his living room and he slowly began to wake up.

He said that he could see fire flickering in the other room from the crack underneath his door as he opened it up to find his apartment engulfed in flames. Tautges immediately slammed the door as flames burst into his bedroom and he realized that he would not be able to escape his burning apartment through his front door.

“I think I stood there for a minute still thinking ‘Is this really happening to me?’ and then it dawned on me, ‘This is really happening. You’re going to die,’” Tautges said.

Tautges immediately put on a pair of sweat pants and opened his bedroom window, barely large enough for him to squeeze through. He stuck the upper half of his body out the window and began to scream at the top of his lungs for help. In his hand was a pair of pants he had worn earlier. Despite the adrenaline pumping through his body, Tautges had the forethought to try to save his wallet and identification cards.

“It’s really weird what goes through your mind when you think you’re going to die,” Tautges said.

As Tautges’ bedroom began to heat up and fill with smoke, St. Regis Volunteer Fire Chief Jerry Dockter and his brother, Gary Dockter, arrived at the rear of the apartment building with a ladder to see Tautges dangling from the edge of the building.

“I swear if they had been a couple minutes later I would have been dead,” Tautges said.

Jerry Dockter said that when they arrived at the scene Tautges’ head, neck and shoulders were on fire.

Tautges says he does not remember being on fire, and all he can recall is seeing the firefighters and realizing that he could not hold on for much longer.

Tautges recalls thinking that if he did not get out of the building soon he would lose consciousness and fall backwards into his burning apartment.

“Even if they hadn’t gotten there when they did I would have jumped out of that window anyway,” Tautges said.

He added that often the rear of the apartment building has been home to broken bottles, nail-filled boards and other sharp objects, which could have made for an unpleasant landing. As soon as Tautges could, he slipped out the window to Jerry Dockter, who was waiting on a ladder that was still several feet short of Tautges’ bedroom window.

Dockter did his best to catch him, but he said that about half way down the ladder he lost his grip on Tautges and the burning man fell around 10 feet to the ground below. Gary Dockter dove out to catch the brunt of his fall.

Tatuges was then 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.

“When they told me I was in Seattle I was just totally baffled because I have no recollection of the trip,” Tautges recalls.

While Jerry and Gary Dockter helped pluck Tautges from his burning bedroom, a team of three firefighters, dressed in protective clothing and self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA), entered the burning apartment building to extinguish the blaze.

Dockter said that, thanks to their equipment, they had the blaze extinguished within 15 minutes and there was no structural damage to the building.

So far there is no official cause for the fire, but Dockter said that they suspect it was an electrical problem.

Tautges, who has recovered from his burns, is back in St. Regis, trying to rebuild his life. He said that if it were not for the bravery of Jerry and Gary Dockter, he would not be alive today.

Tautges has made several trips to the St. Regis Fire Hall to try and thank the two men, but has not managed to catch either firefighter.

“I’ll find them,” Tautges said. “I have to thank them for saving my life.”

While he was in the hospital, Tautges said he received some help from his daughter, Jennifer Portenevue. Portenevue had been missing for five years, but Tautges had gotten in touch with her a month before the fire after an ex-boyfriend saw one of his missing person advertisements.

According to Tautges, his daughter helped coordinate everything while he was in the hospital by getting in touch with his employer and making other arrangements. Portenevue is planning to visit her father in a month and Tautges is excited to see her.

As soon as he was able, Tautges started getting out of bed and moving around the hospital to speed his recovery. He said that the doctors and nurses that worked with him were an enormous help.

“Thank God for that hospital,” he said. “They were all saints, all angels, the nurses and the doctors. They were just really attentive and they really cared. They didn’t treat you like an object, they treated you like a person.”

For now Tautges is growing back his hair and rebuilding his home. He is staying in a smaller apartment downstairs from where he used to live and spends some of his time scavenging through the remains of his belongings looking for things that survived the blaze.

His two cats, who had no names and he only called “his boys,” are gone. One died in the fire. While a neighbor said he saw one cat escape from the blaze, Tautges has not seen it since he moved back home.

“He might have found another family to live with, but I bet he’s just scared and I hope he’ll come home,” Tautges said. He added that his missing resembles the cartoon character Garfield.

Tautges has resumed his job working the afternoon shift at Lincoln’s $50,000 Hotel in Haugan but said that without the help of the St. Regis Community, he would not be on his feet yet.

Tautges said that he has seen an outpouring of support from friends, some of whom he does not know very well, that have helped him out by bringing him furnishings and essentials that he lost in the fire.

“People have just been coming over giving me stuff and it’s just amazing,” Tautges said.

His landlord, Joyce Newsome, even took time to drive Tautges back from the Seattle after his hospital stay and gave him a new TV.

“She has just gone out of her way to make sure I’m alright,” Tautges said.

Since the accident, Tautges has been telling anyone he can to make sure they have a fire escape plan in their home. He says if he had had a rope ladder in his room or more than one fire extinguisher (his extinguisher was on the other side of the burning apartment) he may have made it out uninjured.

Now that he has his life back under control, Tautges says that he plans on working to rebuild his stereo, one of his prized possessions.

“I lost a lot of stuff, but people have given some of the things I need to get by and life goes on,” Tautges said.

More than anything, Tautges says that he is thankful to be alive and thankful to be part of St. Regis.

“I am so grateful to everyone that has helped me,” Tautges said.