Cape Horn residents return after weekend evacuation
Debbie Paulsgrove needed to see for herself that her house was still standing.
A neighbor told her Monday that it had escaped the wildfire on the Cape Horn Peninsula. He’d ridden over in his boat, and turned on all of Paulsgrove’s sprinklers.
“You know it’s just material stuff, but it’s still our dream home,” said an emotional Paulsgrove, who hopes to someday retire with her husband, Keith, in the vacation home overlooking Lake Pend Oreille. “We’ve worked all our lives for this.”
A brief visit to the house set her mind at ease. A firetruck was parked on the street in front of the house to address lingering hot spots, but nothing had burned. From the inside, “you couldn’t even smell the smoke,” said her son, Ryan Paulsgrove.
About 60 Cape Horn residents who fled the fast-moving fire on Sunday were allowed to return to their homes briefly, under the escort of law enforcement and fire officials. They picked up medication and changes of clothing. Some checked on pets they had to leave behind.
The fire has burned about 1,155 acres on the peninsula north of Bayview, which juts into Lake Pend Oreille. Eight structures have been destroyed by the fire, including six homes. The cause remains under investigation.
Heavy smoke shrouded Cape Horn on Wednesday, and gusty winds tested fire containment lines. Officials announced Wednesday evening that Cape Horn residents would be allowed to return to their home starting at 8 a.m. today.
Helicopters working the fire were visible from the Bayview Community Center, where anxious residents waited for escorts into the burned area. They shared stories and information with each other. They recounted the trauma of learning they had just minutes to evacuate and the anxiety of not knowing how their homes had fared.
Dianna Temple got a reverse-911 call just after 1 p.m. on Sunday.
“It was the one that said, ‘Get out right now.’ I just stood there and looked around. What do you take? My whole life is in this house,” said Temple, who lives in Cape Horn Estates, a gated community.
When the shock wore off, she grabbed some clothes, a bone for her golden Lab and pictures off the mantel. Her son and 16-year-old grandson are visiting from California, and they’ve all been staying in a Coeur d’Alene hotel room.
“The hardest part was not being able to find anything out,” Temple said. She later learned that her house, which abuts state forestland, was spared. Neighbors stayed and hosed down her deck. “If it weren’t for them, it would all be gone,” she said.
It was Temple’s first wildfire evacuation. She plans to create a check list of items to take, so she’s prepared if she has to leave again in a hurry.
Dorothy and Fred Huson, 25-year summer residents of Cape Horn, returned to their house Wednesday morning to find the electricity still running and ice in the freezer. The couple expressed gratitude to firefighters working to suppress the blaze.
“Everyone has done a great job,” Fred Huson said. “Everything is fine – the house looks beautiful.”
Debbie Paulsgrove and her husband bought their Cape Horn property eight years ago. She spent Sunday morning watching him work on a shop he’s building on the property. A neighbor alerted Keith Paulsgrove to the approaching blaze.
Debbie Paulsgrove had seen the smoke drifting over the water but wasn’t overly concerned. When her husband told her, “The fire is here, we have to get out now,” she replied, “You’re kidding me, right?”
Paulsgrove and her son have been staying at a friend’s house in Coeur d’Alene, while her husband returned to work in Montana. He’s a heavy equipment operator who insisted that the family clear out brush to keep a defensible space around the house.
“He’s very aware of the fire danger,” Ryan Paulsgrove said of his father.
Wednesday, Paulsgrove was able to give her husband the good news about their home.
“I feel so fortunate, so blessed that our home is still standing,” she said.
The sprinklers were still running when Paulsgrove visited the house Wednesday afternoon. She left them on.