House burns before appraisal

It was supposed to be the beginning of the end. After a two-year long process of trying to sell his house Mark Bruell had his house scheduled to be appraised last Wednesday and the deal was scheduled to close on April 17.

It was supposed to be the beginning of the end. After a two-year long process of trying to sell his house Mark Bruell had his house scheduled to be appraised last Wednesday and the deal was scheduled to close on April 17.

However, everything changed after he emptied out the chimney and placed the ash bucket on the front porch and left for Plains to grab some coffee and a piece of the news.

When he came back 20 minutes later he found the house, which he had built over 20 years ago, in flames after the ash bucket had burned a hole through the porch and ignited a flame that set the east side of the house on fire.

"All I had to do was get the appraisal today and it was a done deal," said a distraught Bruell who anxiously watched rural and city fire crews work to save his house.

The call came in at 9:35 a.m. and upon arriving at the scene firefighters knocked the fire down with a CAF engine, a fire engine that uses compressed air foam, which cooled the fire instantly containing it to the east side of the house within 10 minutes. After that, crews went to the top story of the two-story home and began hosing the fire down helping save four rooms.

"We were lucky," says Plains/Paradise Rural Assistant Fire Chief Lee Mercier. "Usually it's(the structure) a total loss if it's this far out." The house is about 10 miles north of Plains on High Country Road.

While crews worked to put out the fire neighbors and family members comforted Bruell. While sitting with his daughter and two of his grandchildren Bruell broke down and began to cry when he realized that his grandfather's 30-30 rifle was probably gone forever. It was the only item he still had from his grandfather.

"Everything is in there," says Bruell. "My grandpa's rifle is in there. I tried to get in there and get it out, but I couldn't get in the door."

An hour after calling in the fire the fire crews had stomped out the last remaining embers of the fire and saved four rooms with only the living room, kitchen and one upstairs bedroom lying in ruins.

Despite the success of the fire crews and the fact that many of Bruell's posessions were saved it didn't look good for his grandpa's rifle which was sitting on the windowsill of the living room next to the origin of the fire. However, much to his astonishment Bruell bent down and found the rifle unharmed lying in two inches of foam and water beneath the windowsill.

"Wow, amazing, unbelievable," said Bruell. "How did it make it through?"