Child dies in Wasilla house fire

WASILLA — A 12-year-old boy died in a fire on Holiday Drive late Wednesday night.

Mat-Su Borough Director of Emergency Services Dennis Brodigan said the call to respond to the fire came in at about midnight.

“Upon arrival we had indication that there was still a person inside. The house was fully involved at that time,” he said.

Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele said crews did go inside the building.

“When the engine got there we did get a line inside, but they weren’t able, due to the fire conditions, to search the entire building at that point,” he said.

There were three people home when the fire started, Steele said, an adult and two children. The 12-year-old was the only one who didn’t make it out. The two who did escape were rushed to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center to make sure they didn’t need treatment for smoke inhalation.

Steele said the building was a two-story home with an attached garage that had been converted into a home business.

Because a person died in the fire, the Wasilla Police Department was called in to investigate.

“We’re still investigating strictly for cause and origin, it’s not a criminal investigation at this point in time,” Steele said.

It’s been a tough 12 months for the Valley with more fire deaths than anyone can really remember in a year. Most recently, on May 5 a man and a woman were in a home on Copper Creek Drive when the kitchen cabinets caught fire, according to the state Fire Marshal’s Office.

In that case, according to the fire marshal, the woman made it out but the man, asleep at the kitchen table, did not. The fire marshal blames that death on alcohol use.

There have been fire deaths as far north as Caswell and as far south as Butte that have claimed adults and multiple children.

“Right now the Valley has the grim statistic of leading the state in fire deaths, just another reason for the fire prevention message to be getting out to folks,” Steele said.

He said doesn’t know if there were smoke detectors in the home on Holiday Drive — the home was 80 percent destroyed and it’s hard to determine with that level of damage if there were detectors.

But regardless, Steele’s message warrants repeating.

“Residents should be checking their smoke detectors, doing exit drills,” Steele said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.