POWELL — John Lea had just finished another overnight shift managing the Walmart store in Cody.
Like he did every morning when he got home, the 37-year-old took his two dogs out, then settled into his modest mobile home and lit his WoodWick candle, the kind that crackles like a campfire to help him unwind.
"I sat down on my bed and did what I do every day, which is I probably watched a little too much on my phone and went to sleep," Lea said, recalling the day he nearly died on Aug. 1. "I had a candle going at the time, but I mean, it was the candle that I lit every day when I got off work."
The candle was part of his routine to transition into a vampire-like sleep schedule. After five years with Walmart, Lea had grown accustomed to sleeping during the day after working overnight shifts.
His specialty is helping other managers efficiently organize inventory — what he calls "making freight disappear" — both at the Cody store and at locations across Wyoming from Rock Springs to Laramie.
"Product that comes in, maybe a team doesn't have enough people to manage, I make sure the product gets on the shelf,” Lea told Cowboy State Daily, describing a job he said he loves.
The weather in Powell that afternoon was mostly sunny and breezy with a high near 88 and wind gusts up to 23 mph.
‘I See This Smoke’
At 3:23 p.m., Allen Wilson stepped outside his home to put beer can chicken on his new Traeger grill for dinner.
"I just happened to step out and lo and behold, I see this smoke,” Wilson recalled.
Wilson, who retired from a career in commercial construction in Colorado — where he did a couple of Walmart renovations — immediately recognized trouble.
The black smoke told him something was burning unchecked because smoke turns white once it’s hit with water from a fire hose.
Inside Lea’s rundown trailer, that black smoke was building while he remained dead asleep.
He was abruptly awakened by his 5-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever named Belle jumping on top of him.
Lea told Cowboy State Daily that he opened his eyes to see the trailer engulfed in flames around him.
Nothing He Could Do
Lea grabbed Belle and his other dog Beauty and kicked open the door.
The porch was on fire and, as Lea would later tell his friends, he pushed Belle and Beauty — a 15-year-old retriever-greyhound mix — through the flames and out into the safety of the driveway.
"Immediately realized that there is nothing I can be able to do about it," Lea said. Instead, all he could do was stand half-dressed in the street with his dogs.
Meanwhile, Wilson put his beer can chicken on hold and rushed toward the black smoke.
That's how he first encountered Lea — a man standing barefoot watching his home burn with what Wilson described as "a deer in the headlights look."
"He basically got out of the trailer with just his underwear and shorts, and that was it,” Wilson said. “No shoes, no socks, nothing else. And just two dogs. I can't imagine being startled out of a deep sleep.”
As Wilson assessed the situation, he began asking Lea questions that revealed the full scope of the disaster.
Did Lea have keys to move his pickup? Nope, they were burning inside the trailer.
His wallet? Also inside.
His cellphone with all his contacts? Gone.
"I realized (that) this man, not only is he homeless at this point, but he's also penniless,” Wilson said.
Lea, whose professional life revolves around efficiently managing massive amounts of inventory and merchandise, was suddenly a man with no possessions.
He had his truck, his dogs and a spontaneously assembled support network bound by neighborly goodwill.
Help Thy Neighbor
A neighbor whose name Lea can't recall but describes as a down-to-earth guy with a big bushy beard, probably in his late 30s, quickly brought clothes from his own trailer at Scott’s Granite Park mobile home community.
"He ran over to his trailer, and he got me a pair of slippers and a pair of sweatpants, and he got me one of his T-shirts," Lea said. The slippers were Aztec-style sandals about two sizes too big, but they were something.
While Lea continued to blink in the afternoon sun trying to make sense of it all, Wilson sprang into action, asking local police about available resources and quickly realizing he'd need to step up himself.
"I asked myself, ‘So what's the right thing to do?’ If I'm not able to get any resources for this gentleman, he's not going to have a place to sleep tonight," Wilson said. "The Lord has provided for me and my wife, and this guy needs some assistance."
Wilson secured Lea a discounted room at the Super 8 hotel in Powell that allowed his two dogs, then drove to Murdoch's to buy him clothes. Meanwhile, Grace Point Church provided $50 gift certificates to Blair's Market for food.
When it came time to get Lea's truck running again, a local locksmith stepped up and provided a new truck key free of charge.
Then as word got around about Belle saving her owner’s life, the dog treats started showing up.
Good Dog!
As word spread about the fire, Alyssa Gould — whose father works with Lea at Walmart — decided to set up a GoFundMe campaign for Lea, Beauty and Belle, whose heroic act inspired a wave of canine-loving generosity.
"She is so sweet,” said Gould, describing Belle. “She was actually over here at the house with me the other day, when John stopped by to grab some things from me and to give her some new toys.”
Someone donated an entire duffle bag of dog treats, plus the dog toys.
"Bones and fresh dog food and rawhide treats and stuff like that," Lea said. “And a little squishy squirrel in there and a little squishy hamster in there. She's been loving those couple things."
Belle's heroic awakening wasn't entirely surprising to those who know about chocolate Labs. The purebred dog came from a Wyoming breeder who typically sold only to hunting families.
"It took a lot of convincing for me to buy her from the breeder. My plan was to not do that," Lea said.
Instead, Belle became the ultimate family dog.
"She does not leave my side. I could walk down Main Street in the middle of Cody, and she might walk about 5 feet away from me to say hi at somebody,” he said. “But the second she realizes I get any further away from that, she comes right back.
“Before this fire, I didn't even own a dog collar or leash. She never had one on.”
Lea regularly takes both dogs to Cody’s Beck Lake Dog Park, where Belle makes friends while Beauty, now 105 in human years, moves more slowly. On Saturdays, he opens the gate separating the dog park from the lake so they can swim.
When Lea has longer stretches off work, he loves taking the dogs camping. One of their favorite destinations is Alcova Reservoir near Casper.
“We love camping, hiking," Lea said. "As long as it's out in the middle of nowhere."
Housing Challenge
Finding a new permanent home for his small family remains challenging. The burned trailer wasn't much — it had holes, spiders and hadn't been occupied for a while before Lea moved in, he said.
Even so, "it was finally something that was mine," he said. "It was like the three months before that, it was a struggle to find a place to live here in Cody.”
Places do come up for rent, but Lea said, “Once you tell people around here that you have animals, I mean, 90% of it all goes away, which is kind of crazy to me because it's such a rural country area that most people around here have animals.
"I just need to find some place that somebody is willing to rent out to a guy that has two dogs.”
Lab Instincts
Leah Bryan, who owns Cloud Peak Labrador in Buffalo and breeds Labs — some chocolate — wasn't surprised to hear about Belle's life-saving instincts.
Her kennel places about a third of its puppies into therapy work, including diabetic alert dogs and school comfort animals.
"They are energetic and very family oriented," Bryan said of the breed’s disposition. "I have not seen that the color necessarily makes the difference. It's just the Lab personality."
Bryan said Labs can sense a change in blood sugar levels by smelling their owner’s breath. She's also placed a Lab in Buffalo's alternative high school, where the counselor marveled at how the dog calmed anxious teenagers.
"The change they saw in some of the students was amazing,” said Bryan. “And the counselor was like, ‘I have to have one of those.’”
Sisterly Bond
While Belle may be the hero, she depends heavily on Beauty, who has been Lea's constant companion for 15 years.
"When Beauty goes, Belle is going to be kind of lost. They're never apart, ever. Kind of like a big sister, little sister-type deal," Lea said.
Together, Belle and Beauty are working their way through that duffle bag full of treats while Lea continues to piece his life back together.
Lea said the Powell Volunteer Fire Department told him the exact cause of the fire is unknown, so it was classified generally as “accidental.”
"It could have been electrical. It could have been … I had a candle going at the time,” he said, noting how falling asleep to the sound of his WoodWick candle had never been a problem before.
Now staying at the Super 8 in Cody with his dogs, Lea expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support.
"There's been a lot of people, and a lot of them I haven't met directly because I have people that are helping me out with this stuff, these people are donating," he said. "Neighbors that were there, that were supporting me and helping me out. The fire department. Everybody has just been amazing through this whole process."
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
