Teen heroes wake occupants of burning building

The quick response of Flathead High School students likely saved the occupants of a house that caught fire Tuesday morning on the west side of Kalispell.

Tanner Archuleta and Jacob Javorsky, both 17, were waiting in the school’s parking lot when they noticed smoke rising one block away.

“I thought it was a chimney,” Archuleta said. “Then I saw a huge cloud of white smoke and I knew what that was.”

He walked closer to the house and saw flames creeping up the right side of the house on Sixth Avenue West. Archuleta called back to Javorsky to dial 911 and then ran toward the fire. 

The back door was locked, so he went to the front door and yelled for anybody who might be inside. Archuleta went inside the house, a split level with two apartments, and went downstairs. He yelled again and banged on a door, which roused someone living there. 

Then he went upstairs, where Ryan Murray had woken up from the commotion. Flames were spreading up the side of building and starting to come in though the upstairs window.

Murray, a reporter for the Daily Inter Lake, poked his head outside his apartment door and saw the fire spreading. He went back inside and grabbed his wallet, phone and dog. By that time, Archuleta had come upstairs and they both got outside.

“It was kind of a rude awakening,” Murray said. “I’m surprisingly upbeat about it because I’m safe and my dog is safe.”

Meanwhile, Javorsky had made the initial 911 call just before 8 a.m. He ran over to the house and went downstairs, making sure the people living in the lower apartment were out while he was still on the phone. He said the heat and smoke were increasing as he contacted the man inside.

“The guy that I got out, he was just kind of in shock,” Javorsky said.

Separately, another student was helping give information to first responders. Amanda Buxton was just getting to school when she saw the fire and called the student resource officer, Cory Clarke. The information he got from Buxton let fire crews know what they were dealing with.

With the students’ help, everyone got out safely just before the Kalispell Fire Department arrived. 

Fire Chief Dave Dedman said that there was evidence that the smoke alarm might have sounded in the upper apartment, but much of the smoke initially filled the attic space and may not have immediately triggered it.

No injuries were reported in the fire.

Flames reached above the roof at one point, according to witnesses. Smoke seeped from the top of the house through the shingles. Kalispell fire crews, with help from Evergreen Fire Rescue and the Smith Valley Fire Department, put down the fire in about a half hour.

Dedman said that the fire appeared to have started on the outside of the house, where the siding was charred black. 

The fire apparently was started by a campfire from Monday night that was still burning Tuesday morning and ignited the house.

The preliminary damage estimated is $45,000. There was extensive damage to the roof and exterior with limited fire damage inside.

Javorsky’s call likely saved the house from further destruction. Dedman said older houses aren’t built with the same fire-mitigating features as newer homes. If the students had waited longer to react, the flames would have spread more quickly.

“Typically, these old homes just like to burn down,” Dedman said.

With the quick reactions of both Archuleta and Javorsky, the residents may have avoided smoke inhalation, injury or worse. 

Murray said that he can’t go into his apartment for a day, although he was able to salvage a pair of jeans. The fire tore through one of the rooms but left much of his stuff relatively unharmed.

After the incident, the high school students went to school like any normal day. Archuleta said it was a bit scary, but he just reacted. Javorsky said that he didn’t really have time to think about it.

“It’d be better to know that we got someone out than if someone died in the fire,” he said.