Racer, Dogs Back On Fast Track Surviving Dogs Rescued, Treated For Smoke Inhalation

Things looked pretty bleak for Cim Smyth, his dad Bud and brother Abe last week.

Headed home to Alaska from a Wyoming dog sled race, a fire wiped out the Smyths’ truck, burned up most of their gear and killed three of their best dogs.

But with help from friends, other mushers and Alaska Airlines, the Smyths and their remaining dogs flew home Thursday.

Sometimes, said Bud Smyth, it takes bad luck to make you appreciate good luck.

“I’m overwhelmed at the way people treat you,” he said as the dogs waited to be loaded into portable kennels at Alaska Airlines’ air cargo center in Spokane.

It was the end of a long journey that started in January.

Cim Smyth, a 21-year-old who has raised and raced dogs as long as he can remember, decided to run the International Rocky Mountain Stage Stop race in Jackson Hole. The three Smyths drove down from their Big Lake, Alaska, home in a flatbed truck with a new kennel box for their team of 16 dogs.

Cim finished ninth in the 11-day race that covers about 400 miles through Wyoming. On the way home from the race, an electrical short started a fire in the kennel box.

“We didn’t notice it until it was going pretty good,” Cim Smyth said. “We pulled over and started pulling dogs out of the boxes. It took 10 seconds for the whole box to be in flames.”

They were a mile outside of Dubois, Idaho, on the side of Interstate 15, frantically trying to rescue their team. Truck drivers stopped to help; one radioed the fire department.

“There were dogs all over the side of the highway,” Cim Smyth said. “It’s a miracle none of them got run over.”

The fire consumed the kennel box, the truck and two sleds the Smyths had borrowed for the race - a loss they estimate at about $10,000.

That’s all replaceable. The fire also claimed three dogs. A fourth apparently ran away in the confusion.

The Smyths had raised the dogs since puppies. They were pets as well as top lead dogs, and there is no way to figure their loss.

“You can’t buy dogs that are that good,” Cim Smyth said.

Another musher from the Stage Stop race, Dave Torgerson, was driving up I-15 about an hour after the fire and stopped to help. He helped the Smyths load their remaining dogs into his truck, and drove them to his home in Elliston, Mont.

After taking the dogs to a veterinarian, the Smyths called their Big Lake home to break the news to the rest of the family. They planned to stay in Montana for a week or more because the veterinarian advised against a long road trip until the dogs’ lungs were completely healed from smoke inhalation.

Another of Cim’s brothers is preparing for the Iditarod, and planned to use some of the dogs killed in the fire. He had to find replacements.

When the call came, Rex Gray just happened to be at the Smyths’ home, talking about an upcoming race that the Smyths are helping his son train for.

“They know dogs as well as anyone in south-central Alaska,” Gray said.

He heard some of the details of the fire, went home and thought about what he could do to help.

The next morning, Gray, who is a pilot for Alaska Airlines, had an idea. He had a pair of “buddy passes” which the airline gives its pilots as bonuses. Bud Smyth already had a plane ticket home, but Cim and Abe could fly free if they could meet Gray in Spokane.

The dogs could be home in hours, rather than days. But shipping fees could be several thousand dollars.

Alaska Airlines, which is the official airline of the Iditarod, agreed to ship the dogs for free.

Another Montana musher, Jessie Royer of Big Sky, offered to drive the Smyths and their dogs the eight hours to Spokane to meet the plane.

By noon Thursday, the 12 sled dogs were drawing curious stares from passersby as they lounged next to Royer’s truck in the Alaska air cargo parking lot.

In Alaska, the airline regularly loads and unloads teams of dogs as the world’s top mushers compete in races. In Spokane, though, it’s not a common sight, said Lex Young, the airline’s customer service manager. Here the live cargo is more likely to be tropical fish or gerbils.

As the dozen dogs were loaded into their portable kennels for the 2:30 p.m. flight to Seattle, Bud Smyth marveled at the help he and his sons received from friends and strangers.

“I haven’t had occasion to see what happens when the chips are down,” he said. “I guess what we’ve experienced has been worth it.”

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