Family displaced by fire last week has found new place to stay

Dec. 25--Nestled on the couch in the living room of his family's Clarkston home, 6-year-old Buckley Bortz gives Pepper the miniature blue heeler a squeeze and explains just who the spunky speckled canine is.

"The dog that warned Daddy about the fire," Buckley said.

Buckley's father, Charlie Bortz, said he, Buckley and daughter Maybelle, 5, owe their lives to the dog after it woke him in the early morning hours of Dec. 15 after the family's rented 1918 farmhouse east of Kendrick caught fire.

The home was gone by the time Samantha Bortz got home from her job at Vista Outdoor in Lewiston. But thanks to Pepper, along with the family's other two dogs -- Newfoundland-Catahoula-mix Scout and black and tan coonhound Bojack -- her husband and children are safe.

And since losing their home and belongings, Charlie and Samantha Bortz said they have learned what overwhelming generosity their community is capable of.

Their renter's insurance had lapsed, Samantha said, but friends, family and total strangers have already replaced much of what they lost.

"Everything you see in here is donated," Samantha said Thursday, standing by an artificial Christmas tree ringed by presents in the family's newly rented house in Clarkston.

People started dropping off donations of food, clothing and furniture at Charlie's mother's house in Clarkston before the couple had time to even think about what they needed.

"And it's amazing," said Charlie, who works at a ranch outside Asotin. "It started within 12 hours of it happening. I can't even believe it."

"It made it so much easier," Samantha said.

After staying with Charlie's mother, Paula Wood, in Clarkston following the fire, the family found an ad for the rental house last Friday, met the landlord Saturday and moved in Sunday.

By Christmas Eve -- Charlie's birthday -- their new home was almost fully furnished, with beds for each family member, couches and a TV for the living room, and a dining room table.

The night of the fire, Charlie was asleep in his bed with Buckley and Maybelle when the dogs woke him about 2 a.m.

The home didn't have smoke alarms, Samantha said.

When he got up to put them outside, Charlie discovered smoke coming from beneath the basement door. When he cracked the door to peek downstairs, he saw "a wall of smoke." A wood stove in the basement has been identified as the fire's likely cause.

After scooping up the children one by one and taking them to the car, he returned to grab the family's computer and filing cabinet. When he went back, he found two baskets of laundry he had folded but not yet put away.

"Thank God my laziness paid off for once," he said.

The smoke was getting thick, and he could feel the floor heating up as he pulled the baskets out on his hands and knees.

He didn't go back in another time.

Kindnesses from others began before the fire was over. Charlie drove to a neighbor's house where he called the fire department and left the children.

"She was my saving grace, because she just took the kids and alleviated that worry for me," he said.

As the neighbor fed the kids breakfast and turned on cartoons for them to watch, Charlie headed back to the house.

He thought the fire department might be coming, but two Latah County sheriff's deputies told him otherwise. The home, which is outside the Kendrick Volunteer Fire Department's district, was too far out, they said, and the department would not be sending anyone.

Christmas Eve morning, Maybelle sat on the floor under the donated dining room table, singing and flipping through a sticker book -- also donated.

Her birthday was Dec. 16, the day after the fire. The family went forward with a party at the Asotin County Family Aquatic Center, quickly replacing Ariel the Mermaid decorations lost in the blaze with ones from her favorite movie, "Frozen."

"It's been a week now, and the kids are finally starting to ask questions a little bit," Charlie said.

Buckley, a first-grader, is realizing he'll have to go to a new school.

"They've been in really good spirits," Charlie said. "There've just been a few instances of realizing what it really means."

Buckley's priorities Thursday revolved around Christmas.

"We don't have outside decorated," he said of the new house. "We have today to do it. Tonight, Santa's coming."

Quickly returning their family to a life approaching normal has been possible thanks to the community support Charlie calls "unreal."

Students at schools in Kendrick and Moscow raised money for gift cards, a friend set up a gofundme.com account that has garnered donations from a list of people three pages long, and both Charlie and Samantha's employers have been accommodating with time off, they said.

"We've lost track of all the people that have helped," Samantha said.

Looking back at what could have happened that night, Charlie struggles for words.

"To know how close things were," he said. "If the dogs hadn't woken me up. Five minutes later -- no tellin'."

An account for the Bortz family has been set up at Potlatch No. 1 Federal Credit Union. Donations can be made at any branch.

Stone may be contacted at mstone@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2244. Follow her on Twitter @MarysSchoolNews.

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