Neighbors rescue man, 78, from fire

NAPLES, Idaho — Bill McIntosh, 78, was taking a shower when a fire broke out in the kitchen of his Camp Nine residence on Friday, Feb. 28.

Neighbor Lui Lorca-Merono III was the first to notice smoke coming from the front of the structure.

“When I opened the front door, smoke exploded out at me,” Lorca-Merono III said. “So, I ran around to the back door, yelling for Bill.”

Lorca-Merono III and neighbor Rick Smith got McIntosh out of the house, then hooked up a chain to pull away vehicles parked next to the burning structure.

Firefighters and EMS workers attending a training event that day in Naples had to drop everything and race across the valley to join North Bench firefighters responding to a house fire at 209 Camp Nine Road.

Traffic, including a loaded log truck, hampered firefighters as they tried to set up at the blaze. The old timbers of the all-wood structure burned quickly despite hose crews spraying more than 34,000 gallons of water from a steady rotation of water tender trucks.

Crews from North Bench, Hall Mountain, South Boundary and Paradise Valley fire departments all responded to the fire. They were unable to save the structure, but kept the fire from spreading to nearby trees and houses.

McIntosh, who was dazed but unhurt by the fire, is staying with a neighbor and receiving help from the Red Cross.

An account has been set up at Mountain West Bank to help the former U.S. Forest Service employee, who did not have insurance on the property.