Hero brothers credited with saving siblings from house fire

LAZY MOUNTAIN — Out of the ashes of a house fire Tuesday evening sprang two newly minted heroes.

Brothers Dustin Scalisi, 14, and Timothy Scalisi, 10, were at home folding laundry and looking after two of their younger siblings who were ill when they heard a noise outside the window they couldn’t identify.

When they looked to see what it was, their mom, Stephanie Scalisi, said her sons saw a wall of fire engulfing one whole side of the Lazy Mountain house the family rented from Larry DeVilbiss.

“We taught the kids if there is a fire, to get the kids out and don’t worry about the rest,” she said.

That lesson served the Scalisi family well.

The Scalisi brothers each grabbed one of the young siblings in their care and ran out the door. The babies they carried wore only diapers as the two brothers ran in their socks to a neighbor’s house for help.

Their father, Lonnie Scalisi, is understandably pleased.

“I’m very proud of them,” he said. “I’ve been teaching them since they were very little. This is what you do when there’s a fire.”

Stephanie and Lonnie credit their sons’ quick thinking — they even thought to let the family dogs loose before heading to the neighbors — with preventing any loss of life.

On one side of the house was a big oil tank and in Lonnie’s shop were guns and explosive materials related to his gunsmith and reload business. He was planning to be part of the gun show at Wasilla High School Saturday and Sunday, but said he lost everything and has had to cancel those plans.

“I think my boys are kind of a big deal, too,” Stephanie said when she learned that the boys’ heroism would be the subject of a front-page story in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. “I can’t say enough about how God’s blessed me with wonderful children.”

The family is OK, she said, but the house and its contents were a total loss though. They lost everything — including their family photos and her wedding ring — but their lives, their car and the clothes on their backs, Stephanie said.

For now the family is staying in a cabin at their pastor’s house, who also lives in the Lazy Mountain area.

Pastor Jim and Martha Buckingham said the family is welcome to stay in their cabin as long as they need to, but noted that it is close quarters for nine people.

Martha said Lonnie and Stephanie Scalisi had driven with some of the children into Wasilla to pick up their vehicle at the shop.

Coming home, Dustin called. His voice sounded different. Urgent.

Before the line went dead, Stephanie said she heard wind blowing in the phone and a few words that sounded like “there’s a fire.”

“It was sort of muffled, but I thought I understood he said there was a fire,” Stephanie said. “Then the phone went dead and I couldn’t get a hold of him.”

Lonnie told Stephanie to call 911 and then she started calling friends who could go to the house and check on the children.

“We didn’t know if the kids had made it out,” she said. “The whole way there we were just praying that the kids were safe.”

When they reached the Buckinghams on the phone, Jim and Martha got in their vehicle and raced to the Scalisi home.

“There was nothing left of the house,” Martha said. “They lost everything that meant anything to them.”

The fire department came and put out the fire and the Red Cross came to offer lodging assistance and a voucher to help the family with the necessities it would need right away, Stephanie said.

“They came with just the clothes on their back,” Martha said. “And not all of them even had coats and hats.”

Dustin and Timothy didn’t even have shoes.

Jim and Martha Buckingham also praised the boys’ quick thinking with saving the lives of their younger siblings.

Martha said between the oil tank outside the window and the ammunition supplies in their father’s shop, which was attached to the house, the story could have ended very differently.

“Thankfully, those boys had the presence of mind to grab the babies and run down to the next house,” she said. “Thankfully, they got them out of there before it started blowing.”

Jim Buckingham said his sons were headed home and saw the smoke, too. When they went to investigate the source of the billowing black smoke, they figured out it was someone from their church, he said.

“We’re just really thankful to God that they all got out safely,” said the pastor of the Palmer Christian Fellowship Church.

The family is not new to trying times, however.

Lonnie said they moved to Alaska in 2005 after their home in Texas was destroyed by a hurricane.

While serving in the military, he was stationed in Alaska from 1988 to 1992. He served in the Gulf War and eventually returned to Texas, where he met and married Stephanie.

“We’d been praying about how to get to Alaska for about seven years,” he said. “Out of that disaster we got to come to Alaska.”

But what’s made the lasting mark on the family is the way the community has responded in the hours since the house fire, Stephanie said. So many people they’ve never even met before have stepped up to offer aid.

“The community has just been amazing,” Stephanie said

“It’s so amazing the way the community just comes together,” Lonnie said.

The children attend school through a home school program and also need help replacing school supplies, too, Jim Buckingham said.

“They need absolutely anything and everything that a family would need,” he said.

A Scalisi Family Donation Account has been set up at Alaska USA to accept donations. The account number is 1577557.

Clothing is needed in the following sizes:

Boys’ sizes 10, 6, 2-3, 12 months; girls’ sizes 4 or 5 and 14-16; men’s size medium shirts and size 30x32 pants; women’s small and large shirts and jackets and size 8 skirts and pants and size 16 to 18 skirts and pants.

Large furniture, other household, winter gear or other clothing items can be delivered to the Buckingham’s home for temporary storage.

For more information, directions or to coordinate pickup of donations, contact Jim Buckingham at 232-7780 or by e-mail at buckfam@mtaonline.net.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.