Garage fire puts scare into local family

A garage located at 604 16th Ave. was destroyed by fire on Tuesday.

Stacey McKnight, owner of the property, said she was startled awake at 4 a.m. by the sound of her neighbor pounding on her front door.

"I don't even know my neighbor's name yet," she said, "but he was yelling, 'You gotta get out of bed! Your garage is on fire!' "

McKnight said her immediate thoughts went to her 11-year-old son, who often sleeps in the garage. She panicked when she couldn't find him, but he was sleeping in McKnight's bedroom that night.

When McKnight went to look at the garage and could see the orange glow of fire behind the big, white door, she realized she couldn't put it out on her own.

"I could see the flames and the smoke billowing," she said. "I just hit 911 instantly – there was nothing I was going to do."

The garage sat only a few feet away from the house, and she knew she had to get the kids out before the fire reached it. She was afraid the fire would travel along the extension cords that led from the house to the garage.

"Once I saw the flames coming out of the garage, I was gone, and grabbed the kids," she said. "I was thinking, 'Well, it's either now or never. It's going to go, or it's not.' "

Looking at the damage later in the day, windows of the house that faced the garage had shattered from their proximity to the heat. Window seals had melted and dripped like toasted marshmallow.

"It could have traveled," she said. "But (the fire department was) quick to respond – six to eight minutes maybe – but it felt like an eternity when you stand there just watching everything go."

She pointed out the rooms on the side of the house that faced what was left of the garage. Her bedroom, her son's and her daughter's.

"It was close," she said. "If they would have been here, taken two minutes, four minutes longer – who knows what would be left. If the fire department hadn't shown up when they did, it would have busted through here and gone straight into the house."

A firefighter had pointed out to her that the cement siding on the house and garage posed enough of a barrier to detain the fire.

"He said the cement siding is what saved our lives," she said.

McKnight admits that she was so rattled during the experience, she wasn't sure what to do.

"I couldn't think," she said. "I couldn't process what was going on."

As the fire was being put out, she said police officer Tim Craig tried to get her and her family away from the premises for safety reasons.

"Tim Craig says, 'You have got to take the kids and get away. I don't know if anything will explode.' "

"I said, 'This is my d--- house.'

"He grabbed my shoulders and said, 'Are you listening to me?' "

That's when she finally left.

Looking at the charred rubble, she pointed out the steel frames of two, four-wheelers that were left unrecognizable. A propane tank, while darkened, had not exploded.

However, some fireworks they had stored in the garage did go off during the fire.

"We had fireworks left over from the Fourth (of July)," she explained. "Now that Sidney has passed that you can blow them up on New Year's Eve, we were going to save them. Next thing I know, the kids and I are in the van and we just watched the fireworks going crazy."

McKnight has a fairly good idea of what started the fire, although the fire marshal was not available to determine the cause. She said that the firefighters believed the fire started at an electrical outlet on the east side of the garage – the side facing the house.

Generators now hum in the back yard. All the power has been shut off at the property.

"My friends brought me generators so I could plug my fridge in, so I didn't lose the food," she said.

Before the fire, McKnight and her husband had been remodeling their home. But, she said, smoke damage will delay their progress.

"We were just about ready to do remodeling downstairs, add a living room, a bathroom and another bedroom down there," she said, "but I think we'll put that off for a minute."

Despite the harrowing experience, McKnight is aware that the situation could have been much worse. Their garage and its contents was insured and her family is safe.

"I feel lucky," she said. "I feel like somebody was looking out for us, you know?"