HUCKLEBERRIES: Trial by fire

Marty Knapp doesn’t need the graphic reminders of 9/11 to understand the dangers of firefighting.

The retired Coeur d’Alene fire captain experienced them firsthand.

And he has scars on his face, neck and forearms as souvenirs of his 32-year career with the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department, including some he suffered during a Midtown blaze Sept. 23, 1979.

Marty and fellow fireman Rich Kirsch were caught in a flare-up in what the CFD would later call “the worst commercial fire in years.” They had entered Midtown Cycle, one of five buildings destroyed or damaged in the 800 block of Fourth Street, when heat from the attic became unbearable.

From his Kootenai Memorial Hospital bed the next day, Marty recalled telling his partner that “it seems to be getting pretty hot in here.”

And then the two firefighters were surrounded by flames.

Rich rushed through the door. Marty dove out of a window. Both suffered second-degree burns to exposed flesh not covered by protective gear.

About 30 firefighters from the Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County departments fought the blaze.

Adding to the difficulty, the $200,000 fire set off bullets in the Gun Shop, which bounced off the firefighters’ face shields. Assistant Chief Jim Axtell told The Press that the bullets had “little more power than a pea shooter” because they hadn’t been fired from a chamber.

Sold!

Twenty years ago, locals encountered moose everywhere. And not just the monstrous Bullwinkles that wandered into Lake City.

But fiberglass ones, too.

The buzz created by the Excel Foundation’s innovative No Moose Left Behind fundraiser climaxed with an auction that raised $371,938 for local schools. Enthusiasm for the moose had grown for months as local artists painted dozens of them, which were then displayed all around the town.

But not without incident. One moose vanished. One or two others were vandalized.

Those incidents were forgotten Sept. 25, 2004, however, when the high rollers opened their wallets.

Duane Hagadone paid the top dollar of $30,000 for artist Terry Lee’s “Z’Moosterpiece.” Rann Haight’s “Moose Ends,” featuring a halved moose that served as bookends, sold for the second highest amount: $22,500. ("Moose Ends" now resides at the Coeur d'Alene Library.)

Said school Superintendent Harry Amend: “We had no idea these moose would capture so many hearts. Tonight’s celebration and auction is a true reflection of Coeur d’Alene.”

A scary world

At first, David Lyon and his hiking partner, Jerry Smith, thought it was a hoax.

In September 2001, they were in the Cascades, hiking the 2,658-mile Pacific Crest Trail, when they heard the bizarre news. It sounded straight out of Orson Welles’s “The War of the Worlds.”

“We were camped out … with a couple of other campers nearby,” Lyon, a North Idaho College instructor, told The Press for an Outdoors feature Sept. 25, 2004. “I had a small transistor radio clipped onto my backpack strap, and when we first heard the reports, I discredited them.”

The shocking news, of course, told of the horrific Sept. 11 attacks.

“It was kind of eerie being out in that remote of an area, listening to this thing unfold,” David said.

At that point, the trip of a lifetime for the two old Navy buddies became secondary.

David and Jerry finished the five-month trip, hiking through 23 national forests, 34 wilderness areas, and seven national parks. They walked at varied elevations between 100 feet below sea level at the Columbia River and 13,000 feet over some mountain passes.

Later, David’s wife had a three-word answer when the friends discussed a second Pacific Crest Trail hike: “Not a chance.”

Music man

As a child from tiny Springston, near Harrison, the late Barb Renner performed with the North Idaho Accordion Band.

And 70 years later, the former North Idaho Fair manager, recalled that the director was “a feisty little guy with curly black hair and a mustache”: Joe Carbonatto.

“He was so masterful at getting us hyped up,” Barb told Huckleberries in April 2023. “It was a show band, and we had fun.”

Seventy-five years ago (Sept. 26, 1949), the Music Service Company of Coeur d’Alene hired Carbonatto to teach music. And he then beat the bushes around the county to start an accordion band, recruiting musicians from pre-schoolers to women in their 40s.

He even drafted a “Mini-Me” to conduct concerts with him, after noticing the little brother of an Osburn musician mimicking his motions during band practice.

Carbonatto, the cousin of famed composer Pietro Deiro, considered the accordion to be an “up and coming” instrument. Don’t laugh. “The Lawrence Welk Show” was just getting started.

Jailhouse blues

In 1909, when Kootenai County moved the courthouse from Rathdrum to Coeur d’Alene, it housed prisoners in a two-story frame building, owned by Phyllis Gunderson

The structure stood at Second and Wallace, the present site of Allied Weldery. In fact, co-owners Glenn Halliday and Bob Miles of the then 3-year-old welding business razed the old jail in September 1949 to make way for their “modern building machine shop.”

Kootenai County stopped using the building as a jail in 1923 when it opened a new slammer.

At first, there weren’t many prisoners in the old jail, retired sheriff A.P. Bailey, then 77, told The Press in 1949. But he remembers a time when it held four murderers: one who clubbed a man to death, another who killed a railroad agent, a third who poisoned his wife at tiny Springston and a fourth who killed an old-timer named Archer at Harrison.

All were convicted.

No prisoner escaped for long. The sheriff remembers tracking down escapees on a horse, by horse and buggy, and by foot.

Said Sheriff Bailey proudly: “We never lost a prisoner, once we had him behind bars.”

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: germs are quite tiny/and yet they are bold;/they’ll give you the flu/or maybe a cold — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Seasonal Health Warning”).

• Urban Renewal: Our waterfront wasn’t always beautiful. Sixty years ago (Sept. 24, 1964), work crews began a cleanup, south of the Desert Hotel, by removing the weed-strewn Milwaukee railroad switch yard. Bob Templin of Western Frontiers had paid about $175,000 for the 4.8-acre site. Then he built the North Shore Motor Hotel to attract tourists. And the Coeur d’Alene resort followed.

• No Joking: Lawyers often are used as punchlines for jokes. But publisher Woodward/White of South Carolina wasn’t joking in September 1994 when it listed four local barristers among its “Best Lawyers in America”: Tom Mitchell, Eugene Miller, Ken Howard and Bruce Owens. Quipped Mitchell: “I’m not taken with it. I don’t know if it creates any business.”

• Sister Act: In the 1960s, IHM Academy football was the talk of the town, going unbeaten for four years under coach Gene Boyle. Even the nuns got into the act. To promote the game against Lakeland on Sept. 25, 1964, Sister Avellina, the principal, was shown in the Press tossing a football to Boyle and five cheerleaders — underhanded. Boyle didn’t dare correct her.

• Magic Number: Thirty years ago, James Lee of Post Falls became the third member of an exclusive Idaho club. On Sept. 23, 1994, he received a special license plate from Kootenai County title clerk Sally Adams, bearing the number 100,000. According to Assessor Tom Moore, only two other counties in Idaho had issued more than 100,000 plates.

Parting shot

In fall 1984, sheriff wannabe Pierce Clegg and other local Democrats smiled as they opened their headquarters on Coeur d’Alene Avenue. Pierce would lose to Republican incumbent Merf Stalder that year. But he won two subsequent races as a Democrat: a rematch with Stalder four years later and re-election in 1992. Democratic smiles turned to frowns Sept. 15, 1994, however, when Pierce announced he was switching parties. Said Pierce: “In my opinion, the Democratic party is now being led primarily by single-issue activist zealots.” The sheriff’s office, he added, “should be free from politics.” Would that it was still so. Activist zealots, of course, aren’t limited to one party. Subpar trustees, endorsed by the activist Kootenai County Republican Central Committee majority, have crippled North Idaho College and the Community Library Network. Lord, give us more even-handed elected officials, like Pierce Clegg — and fewer activist zealots.

• • •

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.

    In 2004, auctioneer Amy Smith, standing, called for bids on artist Rann Haight’s “Moose Ends,” while Lyn Gerhard, left foreground, and Marilyn Griffits watched.
  

    In 2001, Navy buddies Terry Smith, left, and David Lyon were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail when they heard bizarre news.
  

    In 1949, music instructor Joe Carbonatto played his accordion.
  

    In 1949, former Sheriff A.P. Wallace was shown with his collie, Lass.
  

    In 1964, workers for the Milwaukee railroad dismantled the switch yards on the waterfront to make way for Bob Templin’s North Shore Motor Inn.
  

    In 1994, Coeur d’Alene’s Bruce Owens, Eugene Miller and Ken Howard were listed among the nation’s best and brightest attorneys.
  

    In 1964, Sister Avellina, the IHM Academy principal, tossed a football to coach Gene Boyle and cheerleaders, kneeling, from left, Jane Lauf, Kathleen McMurray and Barb Whiteley, and, standing, Linda Larsen and Ann Matson.
  

    In 1994, James Lee of Post Falls received license plate No. 100,000 from county title clerk Sally Adams.
  

    In 1984, Pierce Clegg, right, was among the Kootenai County Democrats who celebrated the opening of party headquarters. Pictured, from left: Tom Giovanelli, Mary Lou Reed, Terry Eastman, Jim Todd, Alice Anderson, Ray Oliver, Don Heikkala and Clegg.