Quick-thinking teens help woman after fire

A Reardan woman’s home will be warmed for weeks by the kindness of two teens.

After 45-year-old Gail McClung lost two cords of firewood to a blaze in her shed, the two Reardan High School seniors “rallied around” to find her more fuel for her fireplace.

Josh Weatherman and Jon Jayne loaded up their pickups Wednesday after football practice and delivered about a cord of wood to McClung’s home.

McClung was a bit overwhelmed and shocked, she said, from the boys’ desire to help her.

Once the trucks arrived Wednesday night, unloading the timber only took around 20 minutes.

Nearly the entire Reardan football team joined in to help with the delivery, Weatherman said.

McClung watched the high school students from the yard with a smile on her face.

The 45-year-old woman lost her main heat source in a fire Monday night, which was the first time McClung and the two teens met.

Weatherman and Jayne were on their way home from Spokane about 9:30 p.m. when they saw the glow of the fire coming from behind McClung’s 3,000-square-foot home at the corner of Maple Street and Highway 2 in Reardan, said Weatherman’s father, Eric.

The blaze was coming from McClung’s shed about 10 feet from the home’s back door, where she and her husband had stacked two cords of newly purchased wood the day before.

McClung was sleeping inside and unaware that her shed was engulfed in flames, she said.

Weatherman said the decision to stop and help was a no-brainer.

“That’s anybody’s first reaction – to see if someone’s in the home and call the fire department,” he said. “It’s that adrenaline rush reaction.”

At first, McClung tried to use a garden hose to put out the fire.

“I put my arm around her, and said ‘Ma’am, the firefighters will be here soon to do that,’” Weatherman said.

McClung’s husband, Timothy, wasn’t home, she said. He had left town early Monday for military training with the U.S. Air Force.

Reardan volunteer firefighters were able to douse the flames around the shed and save the house, officials said Wednesday. A black hole is all that’s left of the shed and the firewood, McClung said.

“It all turned out OK, but it was very scary,” she said. “Afterward, I thought ‘Wow. These boys actually saved our house, and probably my life.’ I told my husband about what happened, and he said he wants to meet the boys when he gets back.”