Fire destroys Wasilla-area home

WASILLA — Nobody was hurt in a fire that destroyed a house Saturday afternoon on Duke Dale Circle.

The home, in a neighborhood off of Wasilla-Fishhook Road north of Wasilla, was 80 percent involved with fire by the time the first fire crews arrived on scene shortly at around 1 p.m., Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele said.

“No one was home, so it was a delayed discovery of the fire, which then equates to a delayed reporting of the fire,” Steele said.

He said his crews worked defensively, spraying from the outside into the home in an effort to keep it from spreading. One part of the fire was initially fought offensively with the goal of saving some of the partially attached garage. Steele said he pretty quickly had to pull his crews back, though.

“We just weren’t able to because of safety reasons,” he said.

Crews were on scene about 90 minutes before Alaska State Troopers were able to contact the people who lived on the home and confirm that nobody was inside the burning structure, Steele said.

By 2:30 p.m., the peaked roof of the garage had broken in the center and collapsed, the front wall sagging inward from the top. Steele said the fire was still burning inside, but it wasn’t a safe situation to send firefighters in, so the decision was made to get a ladder truck up over the garage and spray water down from above.

On scene, firefighters made multiple round trips from the flames to a station set up on the grass where paramedics were swapping out air tanks on their breathing apparatuses.

All told, about three-dozen firefighters from three fire departments — Palmer, Central Mat-Su and West Lakes — showed up for the fire. They brought with them probably a dozen trucks.

The home had a picnic table out front that crews used to take breaks between fighting the fire. There was a greenhouse, a shooting range and a six-wheeled Argo-style ATV on a trailer in the driveway.

Photographs of the home on a real estate website show a beautiful three-bedroom, three bathroom 3,178-square-foot house. The home had hardwood floors and forced air heat and was built in 2002. The asking price was $298,147.

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