A house fire in late April claimed the lives of four pets and left one man burned. The fire broke out about eight miles outside of Wrangell on April 27th, tearing through a two-unit home. Bruce Levine was burned on his face and hands trying to save his dogs, who didn’t survive. His downstairs neighbors escaped with their dogs, but lost their two cats. KSTK’s Colette Czarnecki spoke with Levine at the trailer where he’s been staying since the fire.
Every time something knocks me down, I get back up stronger.
I have a lust for life. I didn’t come up here till I was 46 to live up here. That’s when my life really began. Alaska changed me as a person.
The community here is amazing, completely amazing. I have a place to stay as long as I need to, people to take care of me and will come over in just a whim. I can’t do much with my hands right now.
I am a paraprofessional at the high school, and unfortunately, I can’t return to that this school year because of the injuries to my hands, but I do definitely plan on going back in August.
A lot of people have asked me if I’m gonna move. Why would I move out of this community? I feel such love. This is home.
I’m Bruce Levine and the two pups that I lost were Gabby, who was three quarters Rottweiler, one quarter German Shepherd, and Bubba, that was Mastiff, pit bull and Rottweiler. They helped me through my wife’s passing. I was never alone.
I had a great day (before the fire). I had a wonderful day, and I left work at 3:30 p.m. and when I pulled up at 3:45 p.m., I wondered why all the cars were out in front of my house. And then I looked up and I saw my house was on fire.
I saw Tim and Shei, and I saw their three dogs, which they were running around the property scared.
I then went back up and attempted to go up the stairs. And the fireman said, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ And I said, ‘Well, let’s go around the side.’
I knew there was no way to get up the stairway around the side. I did that so they would so they would not see me go up the stairway. I saw a window opportunity where there was a space that the fire was not burning, and I ran through it up onto the top deck, busted down a partition I had on the back deck, and shouldered the back door hard enough to knock it off its hinges, hoping that they would be back there and I could save them.
And when I did that, the smoke actually sucked into the house, not out, and I heard a lot of stuff. Called their names a few times. And then realized what I was hearing was crashing and banging of stuff falling off the shelves, and I knew, because of the consistency of the smoke, they had not survived.
So then I decided it was time for me to get off the deck. And there was no way for me to get off the deck other than to have them put ladders up so I could get down.
Anyone that knows me knows what my dogs mean to me, and if I had not tried to save them, I could not live with myself ever.
I was in that house for 19 years. We bought that house the year that we were married in 2007.
Holly and I were married on the front deck. We had all my friends from California up here, her family from Los Angeles and from Texas and whatnot.
There were lots of parties that we had. She’s also a retired opera singer, so I brought a little culture into Wrangell.
Unfortunately, I had put together a box for clothes to go to the theater. And those were her performance clothes. Those were gowns, sequin dresses, stuff like that. Those all got lost in the fire.
But the things I remember most are the feeling of family, the feeling of happiness.
I don’t have any family up here other than Holly, but I do, because this whole island is my family. I feel closer to them than I do to my own family and especially now, they’ve taken such good care of me. I could never give back what they’ve already given me.
For the first couple days, I was still in shock and denial. I kept thinking that I had to feed the dogs.
My burns are mostly to my hands, mostly the right hand, because I put my right hand up towards my face.
I didn’t get burned by the flames, I got burned by the heat, and my face is pretty badly burned, which it’ll heal.
I got to the hospital, they took extremely good care of me. For the first couple of days, both eyes were pretty much swollen shut. I couldn’t see much.
On Wednesday, I woke up and I could see and I knew that, okay, now I can get out. I’m not one to stay in the hospital. The pain level is tolerable.
They were more concerned with inhalation of smoke, which I didn’t have any.
These pads that I have here are pre-set with an antiseptic that will keep my skin moist so that it doesn’t start to crack and peel. Right now it gives the underlying skin a chance to grow, to come up.
I really feel like I need to see my granddaughter and my daughter. They live in Reno, so I never get to see them. I’ll probably be gone for a few weeks or so once all insurance and everything else gets straightened out.
I want to thank everybody out there that has helped and the fire department 100%. Sorry I had to run up the stairs guys, but I had to. No question about it. Anybody that knows me knows how I feel about my dogs. The rest of the community, the support I’m feeling now is just immense. I love all you guys. You’re my family now.
