C-Falls couple, pets escape house fire

Firefighters quickly responded to a house fire on Grand Fir Lane, north of Meadow Lake Golf Resort Friday morning, saving the structure from complete ruin.

“They did an amazing job,” homeowner Jeanette Cheney said. “They saved half the house.”

Jeanette and Randy Cheney were home in bed when Randy heard a noise and woke up at about 3:30 a.m. At first he thought it was dripping water, then it sounded like crackling. He smelled a little smoke, but dismissed it as remnants from the fire he had made the day before on Thanksgiving. He looked down the hall and out the window and saw orange flickering on the snow. He quickly told his wife that the house was on fire. They got their two dogs and cat safely out of the house, and were able to take out a few important belongings. 

“You grab the people, the pets, and anything else is bonus,” Randy said.

Randy grabbed a hose, but the weak spray of water didn’t do much to the inferno. He said it felt like forever before help arrived — Columbia Falls, Whitefish, Bad Rock and Blankenship fire departments responded.

The Columbia Falls Fire Department is still investigating the cause of the fire. According to firefighters likely it started in the chimney of the wood stove, Jeanette said. They also said it is fortunate the home’s attic is segmented because it kept the fire from spreading through the rest of the house.

The fire was concentrated in the guest bedroom on the second floor of the house. That bedroom, bathroom and closet were completely destroyed. The south side of the house had water damage and the rest of the house had smoke damage, mostly on the top floor. The heat from the smoke melted the blinds in a bedroom on the north side of the house, cracked a window and painted the wallpaper and ceiling black.

A few years ago the Cheneys replaced the home’s cedar shake shingles with asphalt shingles that are more fire resistant. Randy thinks if they hadn’t replaced the roof, the entire house would have been burned.