(Spirit Lake)– We’re learning additional details into a house fire Sunday on Little Spirit Lake. A man is being credited for rescuing an elderly woman who was in the burning structure. Matt McKim, a neighbor, happened to see smoke coming from the residence and jumped into action…
“I had just sat down on the couch and was getting ready to have a refreshment and looked out the window and noticed a haze over the lake and I was like what the heck? I got up and looked and there was smoke coming off the point and at that point you couldn’t see any fire, it looked like maybe a brush fire had gotten out of control, someone was burning leaves. I told my wife I was going to go down and check it out and see what was going on because I don’t know how many people are here year-round, some are just weekenders, some are summer people, some are year-rounders. Like I say I haven’t really met everybody yet. So I hopped into the truck and headed down and as soon as I turned the curve here I could see flames coming out of the second story of the house and I just pretty much hit the gas and got there as fast as I could.”
McKim says two other people were on the scene when he got there, including a neighbor and a man from Jackson who was visiting his mother. He says one was on the phone calling 911 while the other was alerting neighbors. McKim says he then ran up to the house that was on fire…
“I ran to the front window, they had a picture window facing the road. I looked in and Avis, I found out her name was later because I hadn’t heard yet, either, was sitting in a chair and didn’t really seem to be moving. I don’t know if she was asleep or watching tv, so I started banging on the window, kind of jolted her awake, I probably scared her more than the fire did to be honest. I yelled back to them there was someone inside and they both came running, too, they were right on my heels. I ran into the house and grabbed her. It was at that point, the second story of the house was already up in flames and the flames were pretty much licking the ceiling of the room she was in.”
McKim says he was able to get the woman, identified as Avis Davis, out of the house safely and into a vehicle. McKim says it was some previous training he had that helped him through the situation…
“Not an actual live situation but I did fire training when I was in the military. We had a little different with a controlled situation. This was a new experience. You think that training probably helped you out in this case? Yeah, I think any fear I had went to the back of my mind just because training kicks in sometimes and you’re aware of the situation and you know what you have to do, you just do it.”
No one else was in the house, which was destroyed.
As we reported previously, fire departments from Spirit Lake, Lake Park, Milford and Arnolds Park-Okoboji battled the blaze in single digit temperatures. The Spirit Lake Fire Department was called back to the scene multiple times Monday to extinguish hot spots.
The State Fire Marshal was on the scene Monday but so far there’s been no word on a possible cause.
