Vestal: Family fled fire in nick of time

Wildfire destroyed Karl and Karen Landrus’ home at 6009 Joseph Lane near Mount Baldy but left a neighbors home still standing on Sunday. The aftermath can be seen Monday morning. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

For most of us, Sunday’s Beacon Hill fire was a plume of smoke on the horizon.

Karl Landrus and his wife, Karen, watched the fire out their front window, burning directly toward them as it climbed from the grass into treetops.

“It crested over the hill on top of Mount Baldy,” Landrus said. He lives on a knob of hill sometimes called Little Mount Baldy; the two Baldys sit just north of Beacon Hill, in a wooded, hilly area east of Hillyard.

“It started burning trees, crowning ’em, and the wind was blowing in our direction,” said Landrus, 59. “It didn’t look too good. … It was really raining hellfire.”

Landrus, his wife, their grandson and their dog, Linus, jumped in the truck and fled, minutes before the fire burned through their home, taking a path between the neighbors on either side. By Monday morning, the Landruses’ home was leveled, the surviving brickwork standing sentinel over blackened, smoking ruins. A Subaru skeleton sat in the driveway; ash floated on the surface of the backyard pool.

The Landruses left so quickly they couldn’t even rescue personal belongings.

“Nothing,” Landrus said/ Shawn Vestal , SR. More here (subscription).