Photos by Dewey Pihlman By the time the Gunflint Trail Fire Department arrived on the scene, the Tony and Carol Feiock home was fully engulfed in flames. Right: Just a few days earlier, neighbor Dewey Pihlman took a photo of the reconstruction, overlooked by a rainbow.
A home at 239 Sag Lake Trail, belonging to Tony and Carol Feiock of Lake Quivira, KS, was burned in the 2007 Ham Lake wildfire. The cabin was being rebuilt this summer by Isak Hansen Construction. Tragedy struck again on Monday, August 24, 2009 and the nearly completed home was completely destroyed by fire.
Cook County Law Enforcement received a call at 10:41 p.m. from Dewey Pihlman reporting that a house on Sag Lake Trail was on fire. Pihlman’s house is directly across Seagull River from the Feiock residence.
Reached by telephone, Pihlman said he was getting ready to go to bed when he heard a strange crackling sound. He looked across the river and saw what looked like a campfire. He knew the Feiocks were not at their cabin, so he took a closer look with his binoculars. Pihlman was horrified to see a small fire on the deck of the house. He called 911 and watched helplessly as the wind picked up and fed the flames. Pihlman’s house is across Seagull River, up a cliff, so he knew he would never reach the home in time to save it.
“By 10:50, the entire house was engulfed,” said Pihlman. “I heard the windows exploding and the roof cracking.”
The Gunflint Trail Ambulance, Gunflint Trail Fire Department, and a US Forest Service fire crew responded, with the first engine arriving at approximately 10:56 p.m. Gunflint Fire Chief Mike Prom said the fire department had four fire trucks at the scene.
Pihlman said by 11:05 p.m., the house had collapsed. He said there were sparks and burning material floating northward on the wind. “The fire department did a great job. They got on the scene as quickly as possible and got the big pumps set up to protect the other properties,” said Pihlman. The adjacent properties are within approximately 250 – 300 feet of one another.
Fire Chief Prom was in Grand Marais when the call came out, so Bob Baker was the incident commander. Baker and the first firefighters had a difficult time reaching the Feiock home. “There were substantial wind gusts coming from the southwest and too much heat to get into the driveway,” said Prom.
The firefighters entered the driveway south of the Feiock property and set up there. Thefiredepartment loaded a portable pump by boat to attack the fire from the water. Prom said the fire was knocked down and completely under control by about 12:30. Trucks remained on the scene until 1:50 a.m. and two firefighters remained through the night to make sure the smoldering fire did not flare up again. At 9:09 a.m., all the Gunflint Trail firefighters were finally released from the scene.
Prom said the cause of the fire is under investigation by the insurance company, but he said there was no sign of arson or lightning strikes.
The Feiocks were unavailable for comment at press time, but Dewey Pihlman summed up the feeling of their Gunflint Trail neighbors. “I am sure they are devastated,” he said, recalling that he had enjoyed watching the rebuilding of their home. “Just two days ago I took a wonderful picture of a rainbow over their house—now this. In two days, it was rainbows to ashes.”
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