Aspen The Dog Saves Owners’ Lives Fire Didn’t Set Off Smoke Alarms, But Pet’s Barking Woke Couple Up

An early morning fire sent a ceiling crashing down on top of four firefighters Sunday, charring a new house, leveling a garage and destroying two collectible cars inside.

But the firefighters suffered only minor injuries, the owners of the year-old home plan to rebuild, and the couple say they owe their lives to Aspen - a yellow Labrador.

“Honest to God, the smoke detectors weren’t going off at all,” said Nancy Clough, standing behind the yellow tape cordoning off her ruined home near Snowberry Road and Hanley Avenue.

Aspen went crazy at about 6:30 a.m., waking Nancy and her husband, Jon, and sending them scrambling outside.

“They were very, very lucky,” said Ron Sampert, interim fire chief for the Kootenai County Fire District.

Half of the house was destroyed.

Trucks from Kootenai, Hayden and Post Falls fire departments rushed to the blaze. The crews of the three engines and five to seven other trucks had the fire knocked down by about 7 a.m., but not before a drywall ceiling collapsed on four firefighters two from Hayden and two from Kootenai.

All were taken to Kootenai Medical Center. Sampert declined to release their names, but said they were treated and released Sunday morning.

The cause of the fire is unknown, but Sampert said it likely started in the garage. After the blaze, investigators from an Idaho State Fire Marshal’s arson response truck nosed about the blackened beams and garage with a video camera.

The Cloughs didn’t have a smoke alarm in their garage, only inside their home. And at first, they ignored their loud labrador.

“That was no baloney, man, I was about ready to kick her butt,” Nancy Clough remembered “…I finally said to Jon, ‘Shut that dog up!”’ Jon Clough saw smoke, but they both assumed someone was burning grass. Then they noticed that their clocks were without power.

“It’s a real good dog,” Jon Clough said. “I wish we would have listened to her sooner.”

Nancy Clough called for help using her cellular telephone, and began tossing photo albums out the window and into a wheelbarrow below.

Once outside, she noticed as many as 30 neighbors rushing toward her through a field of 4-foot-high knapweed. It was too hot to approach from the front.

“I had more people giving me hugs. Strange people I didn’t know,” Nancy Clough said. Everyone wanted to know her shoe and clothing sizes.

Neighbor Jan Stixrud knew something was wrong when she heard a sharp explosion across the street. “It was like the Fourth of July,” she said.

Aspen escaped, too; but the couple’s cat was trapped in the basement for more than an hour. Against Nancy Clough’s protests, a firefighter went inside to rescue the pet. Clough said she couldn’t live with herself if the firefighter had gotten hurt.

The smoky-smelling cat was frazzled, but otherwise seemed OK. “The poor fireman said it about tore him up,” Nancy Clough said.

Jon Clough’s ‘57 Chevy and ‘63 Supersport Impala fared much worse. Both were metal-gray and charred, their paint jobs baked off in sooty curls.

The roof of the ‘57 had slumped in, the Impala’s roof was completely flattened.

Jon Clough was able to back up his Dodge Ram pickup that was outside, but its canopy still melted from the heat. Another of the couple’s cars, a ‘69 Impala, came away with just a charred hood.

“The lesson here is, make sure you have a smoke detector for your garage,” he said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo