Family grateful for firefighters, passer-by

SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint woman whose home was damaged in a fire on Tuesday is grateful for the actions of firefighters and a passer-by who alerted her to the blaze.

Cedar Street resident Mary Ellen Irving said she awoke to the sound of banging on her home’s front door shortly before 7:30 a.m.

“This man is just beating on the door screaming, ‘Your house is burning! Your house is burning!’ We had no idea,” Irving said.

Nine people occupied the home, although only five were in the residence when the fire took root in an upstairs attic. Smoke alarms were not tripped because of the fire’s location.

Irving grabbed her 2 1/2-year-old great-grandson and safely exited the home with her daughter, son-in-law and a granddaughter. The family’s six cats and four dogs also escaped without injury.

The identity of the passer-by remained a mystery on Wednesday.

“All I can say is he was a guardian angel. I didn’t see his face because the minute he said, ‘Your house is on fire!’ I went the other way to grab my grandson,” Irving said.

Irving said her family has been shown an outpouring of support from friends and others in the community when they learned of the fire.

“People have just been wonderful all the way along,” she said.

Firefighters from Selkirk Fire Rescue & EMS and the Northside Fire District extinguished the blaze and helped rescue some of the family’s pets, including a large dog that was kept in a pet crate overnight. They also placed tarps over furniture in the home to protect it from water damage.

“They were amazing,” Irving said of the firefighters.

The fire has been determined to be accidental with a strong suspicion that it resulted from an electrical malfunction in the home. Irving said the lights flickered and a light switch was not working properly on Tuesday night.

Irving said there was not a wisp of smoke in the home when they were awakened and she believes the fire had been burning for some time before the passer-by happened along.

Irving said the incident underscored a two-part rule in the family. The first part is “not to sweat the nickel-and-dime stuff.” The second part?

“It’s all nickel-and-dime stuff,” said Irving. “Everybody’s looking at it that way. We got out and our animals got out.”