On May 23, a house caught fire in the village of Crooked Creek in Western Alaska. None of its four inhabitants, including the homeowner and her 2-year-old son, were home. But the fire ravaged the house, and injured a man trying to stop the flames.
Crooked Creek doesn’t have running water to homes and businesses or a fire department. But a visiting construction company, Brice Inc., happened to be in town with a water truck on hand. Brice employee Kane Peacock said that’s how they put the fire out when they got to the scene.
“It was definitely a little hectic at first,” he said. “We had a bunch of fire extinguishers there and everyone to help. But realistically, at that time, the flames were so large that he couldn’t get close enough to use a fire extinguisher. So it was kind of just the guy running the hose off the water truck.”
The tribal administrator for Crooked Creek, Elena Philips, lives next door to the home that burned down.