Story and photos by DIANA DESTAFENO:

Over $1 million in damage: Kotzebue residents stood a respectable distance from the house fire near Front Street while firefighters worked to put out the flames 1:30 a.m. Saturday in Kotzebue. Three houses were burned to the ground along with a garage and storage shed. An elderly man and his wife jumped out their 2nd story bedroom window to safety. The man sustained a foot injury upon landing. Cars filled with people gathered along the side streets and families stood in groups outside their houses and watched as the flames shot high into the air. Cars that were parked near the house were dragged a safe distance away from the burning house before they caught on fire.

...

KOTZEBUE -- The fire could be seen from across town. Thick, black smoke rose from a burning house and the wind blew it across the town and out toward the water. "I could see it from my second-story bedroom window around 11:30 at night," said Henry Schildbach. "Flames were shooting straight up in the air. I thought it was the AC store, but then I realized it was over near police housing behind the old pizza place."

According to Steve Troxell, Kotzebue Fire Chief: "The fire started at the home of Margaret and Homer Russell. They were sleeping upstairs in their two-story house when they awoke and found their downstairs area fully engulfed with flames. Both the front and back door exits to the house were blocked by fire, so they closed the door leading downstairs and jumped out their second story bedroom window. The house is up on arctic piling, so it was more like a 2 1/2 story jump. Margaret did not have any injuries, but Homer broke his foot during the landing."

"The fire was a big, hot and very fast fire. We arrived at 12:05 in the morning on Saturday to a fully involved 2-story house on fire. 15 volunteer firefighters were on the scene and we drafted 3 search and rescue personnel to assist us. The house next to Russell's house was Chuck and Barbara Janitscheck. Their house also burned to the ground. A third house owned by Eva Booth also burned to the ground. Other items that were lost included one storage shed, a garage, a boat, numerous ATV's, snowmachines and vehicles on the premises."

The radiant heat from the fire could be felt from across the street according to the neighbors, who reported they felt bursts of heat while hosing down their houses with garden hoses as floating embers landed on their property. There were 500 gallon containers full of gas and fuel oil next to the burning houses. The Department of Transportation launched crash rescue trucks to the burning dwellings and dumped 7 or 8 loads of fire retardant on the hot fire. Each load of fire retardant is 1,000 gallons of water mixed with 500 gallons of foam for each dump on the fire. The last house fire in Kotzebue was in January 2009 when Lincoln and Linda Saito's house burned down, and the one prior to their fire was at the Shroyer-Beaver house in August 2008.

Over $1 million worth of property damage occurred according to the fire chief including one $300K one-story house, one $500K two-story house, one $250-300K one-story house, a storage shed and garage, a $50K boat, vehicles, snowmobiles, ATV's and personal property. A single story house owned by Dolly Sours next to the burning houses was partially burned. Dolly Sours was helped out of her house and her grandson Lionel Winkel said her house "was as hot as an oven inside." Vehicles and a boat were pulled away from the burning buildings using a chain and front end loader to they would not burn in the fire.

Many hot spots of smoldering smoke and small hot fires are still being put out 12 hours after the fire started burning. The Kotzebue Fire department, according to Silvano Vivciros, Kotzebue Fire Captain, will be monitoring the area for the rest of the day.

The fire is under investigation by the Fire Marshall and District Attorney.

Groups of people gathered to watch the fire department water down hot spots on three houses that burnt to the ground early Saturday morning in Kotzebue.

...

NOTE: Big thanks to Diana for this timely report out of Kotz. If you have a story to tell about rural Alaska, or have a photo we can share on our Web site, e-mail me at khopkins@adn.com.