Only House’s Ashes Remain From Pocatello Fire

One house was lost in the flames Monday as the Pocatello fire spread rapidly.

The blackened hills and unmistakable smell are a scary reminder of just how close the fire came to the Garton?s house, who live in the evacuation area.

They could see the flames getting closer from their porch.

?I?ve never, never in my life been in a situation like that,? said Loave Garton. ?It was scary, very scary.?

The fire came close to their home that they have lived in for 32 years, a home they built from the ground up.

But another house was not so lucky.

All that is left of a three-story home among the juniper trees and Pocatello hills are crumbling parts of foundation, dark ashes and a few figurines that stand where a yard used to be.

The fire was so strong it burned well into the ground and there was nothing firefighters say they could have done.

And a garden hose that some thought could protect their homes from the fire was barely recognizable in ashes.

?You can imagine from the devastation that it would be unsurvivable for either fire crews who were up here,? said David Gates, Assistant Fire Chief. ?No amount of water would’ve stopped that fire. Certainly not a residential hose.?

Once the fire took over, there was nothing firefighters could do, but there are things that homeowners can do to protect themselves.

?There’s a lot of things that we could’ve done to help prevent this,? said Blake. ?If we’d taken some initial actions. Things like changing your roofs from shingles to asphalt.?

And setting up what is called Defensible Space, making sure juniper trees are cut back to at least 50 feet and cleaning up trash.

Simple things like this help to prevent losing everything, some things the Gartons could not even imagine.

“We built this house and bought this land,? said Garton. ?The whole thing is just our lives.?