BIG LAKE — Steve Hawk lost some childhood friends last week when fire claimed a storage facility here.

Hawk was one of about nine people renting space at Big Lake Automated Storage when one of the facility’s buildings caught fire Feb. 16. Among the possession Hawk and his family lost was much of his 1960s vintage comic book collection.

Although he hadn’t collected for years, Hawk said he had about 1,500 comic books, mostly from the 1960s, he collected as a child and young man. Among the illustrated volumes were the prizes of his collection: A 1964 “Daredevil” No. 1 comic book and a 1963 No. 3 “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

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“They were in good condition, good to above average. I had 90 percent of them bagged in special bags,” Hawk said, adding he never was a serious collector.

“I just got them when I was a kid,” he said. “Everything I bought, I bought as a kid. I’m just such a pack rat, I don’t throw anything away.”

Although there’s no amount of money that can replace the fictional friends he made as a child, had the collection and possessions in the storage unit been insured, Hawk may have been due a substantial monetary reimbursement.

Eric Helmick is a manager and comic appraiser for Bosco’s Comics in Anchorage. Depending on condition, either of Hawk’s prized comics could have been worth anywhere from $50 to about $6,000.

“It would be a real shame if those were lost,” Helmick said.

Hawk and his wife, Patty Hawk, spent much of the day Monday going through the remains of their storage unit. That they didn’t have insurance on their stored possessions never occurred to them until it was too late, Steve Hawk said.

“We just look at this and wonder why we didn’t (have insurance),” he said. “I don’t think we really thought about it. We have household insurance.”

More than the loss of the comics, the family is saddened that other more important family heirlooms were consumed in last week’s fire, Steve Hawk said.

Among those lost heirlooms is a rocking chair handed down to one of Hawk’s daughters was originally make by Steve Hawk’s great-grandfather.

“That was one of the more sad things to lose,” he said. “My great-grandfather was a carpenter and miller. He had built a shop and was quite a craftsman. That (rocking chair) was given to my youngest daughter. I used to rock her to sleep and read to her in it.”

Stories like the Hawks’ are familiar to Robert Jaegge, senior fire investigator for CASE Forensics of Anchorage. Although the storage facility itself carries insurance, that only covers the physical building and property, not the contents belonging to renters, he said. Also, items like tools and collectibles often require separate insurance riders to be covered in the case of theft or fire.

“People don’t realize that tool chests and things of that nature are not covered,” Jaegge said. “You have to specifically have them on a rider or addendum.”

In the case of the Big Lake Automated Storage Fire, Jaegge said he saw two large tool chests that weren’t insured.

Just what caused the blaze still hasn’t been officially announced, although the state fire marshal’s office has finished its investigation, said Jim Carnahan of the Lakes Fire Department. Carnahan declined to give further details, referring questions to the state investigator. Calls to the state fire marshal’s office were not returned by press time.

In the week since the fire, storage facility owner Richard Stryken has had the area fenced off and has had 24-hour security watching the area to make sure people could go through and try to salvage their belongings. A final dollar amount for the damage done has not been released by fire investigators, and Stryken declined to comment about that until a final report is issued.

When he gets the green light from fire officials, Stryken said he “absolutely” will rebuild the storage facility.

But not everything involved in the fire was a total loss. Big Lake resident Jim Norris was also at the scene Monday, wearing a face mask while going through the debris. A boat he used to do charter fishing out of Whittier was destroyed. Norris has insurance on the boat, and was “finding bits and pieces.”

He discovered a few usable hand tools and found his sister’s wedding pictures still intact.

“I found my sister’s wedding pictures,” Norris said. “I just told her, and she was pretty happy.”

The Hawks also found some family photographs that were salvageable, and while losing some memories and treasures, they’re only things, Patty Hawk said.

“Sometimes I think this was the Lord’s way of telling us it was time to purge,” she said.

Robert DeBerry contributed to this story. Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.