Family escapes devastating blaze

COEUR d’ALENE — Chuck Mendoza stood in the gray morning Tuesday looking over the charred remains of his Sky Harbor Drive home, recalling coincidences.

He and his wife, Kristi, completed building the home with its southern view of Lake Coeur d’Alene and Arrow Point 14 years ago this month — and the house burned early Tuesday, on his wife’s birthday.

Milestones, Mendoza said.

Mendoza, his wife and two daughters safely exited the residence on the 3700 block of Sky Harbor after being alerted to a fire on the south side of the structure by the sound of spare tires there exploding.

“We heard a big boom,” he said.

When they saw the flames engulfing their home, the couple saved their minivan and a pickup truck from the garage by driving them up the steep driveway that connects to the main road.

By then their 3,000-square-foot, two-story house was engulfed, preventing them from salvaging anything else, Mendoza said.

“We realized we weren’t able to get anything else out,” he said.

Fire investigator Craig Etherton of Coeur d’Alene Fire said crews from Coeur d’Alene, Northern Lakes Fire District and Kootenai Fire and Rescue responded to the call at 5:50 a.m.

“As soon as we could, we got up there,” Etherton said.

More than 20 crew members fought the blaze on the hillside above Interstate 90, almost 4 miles from where Potlatch Hill Road leaves East Coeur d’Alene Lake Drive.

The fire was snuffed within two hours, leaving the home’s upper portion charred and mostly collapsed, while the lower portion — a daylight basement — was water damaged.

Etherton said he and fellow fire investigators completed their work before noon Tuesday, but will wait until today’s insurance investigation to release findings.

“It sounds like it started outside,” Etherton said. “When we’re confident we are all looking at the same thing, we will probably put out an official release.”

Mendoza, an assistant pastor at the Foundation Baptist Church, said the family’s two boxer dogs were released from the house during the blaze and ran away, but he expected they would return.

“They’re fine,” he said.

They often escape and run off, returning after several hours, he said.

Mendoza wears a brace because the brakes failed while riding his ATV down the property’s steep driveway recently, resulting in a crash that broke his back.

Despite the setbacks, Mendoza said he isn’t too worried about being put out of the family home until it is rebuilt.

“We’ll probably be staying with neighbors,” he said. “We have good neighbors around here.”