House built 40 years ago remembered after fire

A Seeley Lake man who lost the three-bedroom, A-frame house on Hickory Lane he built himself 40 years ago, to a chimney fire last Sunday morning, Feb. 5, says that despite the event, he is thankful for the support from the community as he decides his next move.

Pat Caffrey, a retired industrial forester, said he was in the living room near the fireplace when the chimney fire started, just as he was getting ready to go out that morning to an event.

"I heard crackling," he described. "Then I noticed flames in the ceiling ... I had the fire extinguisher in one hand and was calling 911 with the other," Caffrey remembered.

By the time the Seeley Lake Rural Fire District firefighters arrived, the fire had spread within the walls, and was difficult to access. It went on to destroy the main floor of the house and the second-story bedroom floors. A backhoe was brought in to pull out the walls, then all hot spots were hosed down, he said. This saved the basement, which also had one of the bedrooms where Caffrey kept important paperwork, memorabilia from his travels around the world and household items.

"They did an outstanding job," Caffrey said, adding that Seeley Swan Search and Rescue volunteers had also come over to help move items from the basement to a garage on the property, which was separate from the main building and had not been damaged.

Caffrey said that he began building the house when he first moved to Seeley Lake in 1976 and bought the property. He was 26 at the time, and it took him seven years to complete, cutting and hauling lodgepole pine from surrounding forests, and digging a drainfield and septic system by hand. Caffrey paid for the house as he went. For many years, this was the only house on the street he recalled, and it was where his son and twin daughters - now all in their late 30s - were raised.

Caffrey, who pointed out that he is now 72, said he wouldn't be attempting to repeat his efforts to rebuild the house on his own. He said he was waiting to hear from his home insurance company before making a decision.

"The insurance is in progress," he said. "The options are to rebuild or move away."

Even though it would mean hiring a contractor this time around, Caffrey said he was "leaning towards rebuilding."

Later that week, Seeley Lake Rural Fire District Chief Dave Lane said that they received the call alerting them to the fire on Hickory Lane at 10:24 a.m. and 12 firefighters attended the scene. Along with an engine, a water tender, a command vehicle and a utility vehicle, an excavator was also brought in to better access the fire, which was controlled by 12:53 p.m. 

An investigation into the fire determined that it was caused by excessive heat to the wood stove chimney, Lane said.