By GREG STAHL and Jody ZARKOS
Express Staff Writers
It was the day he returned from Russia, and his house burned to the ground.
Hailey resident Dick Duncan and his family suffered a total loss of their Cedar Street home in the early-morning hours of Thursday, Jan. 10. Duncan's wife is still traveling, and two cats were saved from the flames. Despite the total loss, there were no injuries.
An estimated 30 firefighters from Hailey, Bellevue and Wood River were dispatched to a structure fire at the two-story home in the Della View neighborhood around 3:30 a.m. Thursday.
"When we got there the fire involved about 50 percent of the first floor," Hailey Fire Chief Mike Chapman said. "It was a modular-constructed house. Until the roof burned off we could not get into the attic to fight the fire."
While Fire Marshal Mike Baledge is still investigating the cause of the blaze, Chapman said that Duncan believes he knows how it started.
"He said the fire was related to cooking some popcorn in the microwave," Chapman said "By his report, the popcorn burned and caught some holiday garland above the microwave on fire."
Chapman said the garland acted as a "trailer," spreading flames to a Christmas tree in the living room.
"That is a lot of BTUs," he said. "A tree goes up in 15 seconds. Once that happened, the fire got beyond the control of any extinguishers he had on hand."
Chapman said the entire house was gutted by the fire, though the frame was still intact.
"We were able to save an adjacent garage with a mother-in-law apartment, which was attached by a breezeway, but the house is pretty much a total loss," Chapman said.
Neighbor Ed Northen, a retired Orange County fire captain and paramedic, and his wife, Carmen, were witnesses to the fire.
"When I got there the windows had already blown out, and it was going up the back side, as we say, ventilating itself," he said.
Ed Northen said he looked in the house and attempted to throw snow on the flames.
"I looked in to see if there was anything I could do," he said. "The smoke level was a foot or foot and a half off the floor. It flashed. It was pretty hot inside there, and we decided to get out of there."
Northen said it was a fast-moving fire, and was certainly accelerated by the Christmas tree. He said he used to work on demonstrations in Orange County involving dry Christmas trees.
"In less than three minutes we'd have flash all over the room," he said. "That's how much heat that kind of fire can generate."
Chapman said a crew of three was still on scene at 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon putting out hot spots.
"We have spent the last four hours putting out what we call candles," he said.
Six fire-fighting apparatus or fire-related vehicles were called to the scene, Chapman said, including three from Hailey, two from Wood River and one from Bellevue. The fire occurred on Cedar Street just west of the Silver Star intersection.
Carmen Northen said she feels a great deal of sympathy for Duncan and his family.
"It's pretty spectacular, but I don't want to say spectacular because it's my neighbor's house," she said. "Let's say heartbreaking.
"That's not the kind of knock you want to hear in the middle of the night, that your neighbor's house is on fire."
Firefighters explore the charred wreckage following a fire that might have started from a bag of popcorn that ignited holiday decorations. Photo by David N. Seelig
