Ginia Fraser was sound asleep with the family's cat, Lily Flower, curled up beside her when one of the family’s dogs began barking shortly after midnight on Thursday.
Then came the popping sounds outside — "almost like explosions," said Fraser.
Her husband’s first thought was that someone was breaking into their Sheridan home.
He jumped out of bed and ran into the living room. From there, he could see through the kitchen window toward the family’s camper parked in the driveway.
Then he screamed.
“Get the boys! Our camper’s on fire! Get the boys!”
Within seconds, Fraser was out of bed and racing downstairs toward the bedrooms of their 10- and 14-year-old sons.
In the commotion, Lily Flower — the cat who had been sleeping curled up beside Fraser — became frightened and disappeared beneath the bed.
Fraser didn’t have time to look for her.
“The camper and the house are on fire,” she remembers yelling to her boys. “You have to go now!”
Exit Strategy Rehearsed
The Frasers’ two younger boys sleep downstairs in the family’s finished basement.
Fraser had always been a little nervous about that arrangement, but she knew that if something were to happen, the boys needed to know exactly how to get out. So the family practiced.
When their 10-year-old heard his mother yelling that the house was on fire, he didn’t stop to dress.
He jumped out of bed in his underwear. He grabbed the family's other cat and raced outside.
“He ran right out the front door and went exactly the way that we had practiced him going in the event of a fire,” Fraser told Cowboy State Daily on Saturday morning.
His 14-year-old brother, whose bedroom is in the back corner of the basement, remembered to close the doors.
Then, on his way out, he closed the door separating the basement from the upstairs.
It was something the boys remembered from Sheridan Fire-Rescue firefighters visiting their schools to talk about safety, Fraser said.
“The kids’ bedrooms are the only rooms in the entire house that are completely unscathed,” Fraser said. “They didn’t lose any of their things. There’s no smoke damage. Their clothes are all fine.”
Fraser’s husband specifically wanted people to know the lessons had stuck with their sons.
“For some reason that just stuck,” she said. “So I think that that’s pretty cool.”
The burned remains of the camper beside the Fraser family’s Sheridan home. (Courtesy: Ginia Fraser)
40 Feet High
The fire broke out shortly after midnight at their North Thurmond home just a few blocks west of downtown Sheridan.
Sheridan Fire-Rescue reported the alarm at 12:36 a.m., with Sheridan Police, Goose Valley Fire Department and Wyoming Regional EMS also responding.
By the time Sheridan Fire-Rescue Engine 2 arrived, the camper parked in the driveway was completely wrapped in flames and had spread to the house.
Firefighters established a water supply and pulled multiple handlines while attacking the fire, protecting neighboring properties, and trying to keep it contained.
By then the Frasers had started pounding on neighbors’ doors.
“At this point, the flames were probably 40 feet in the air,” Fraser said. “You could see them from over the top of our roof.”
She could hear loud popping, and the the smell of burning camper plastic and wood filled the air. "Ugh, it was awful," said Fraser.
The homes on either side of the Fraser property also sustained exterior damage, she said. At first, she thought that damage was largely cosmetic, but her husband has since been told there could be damage to an exterior wall of one neighboring home.
The full extent was still being determined.
Downed Power Lines
Fraser said Sheridan Fire-Rescue arrived within about three minutes of her husband’s 911 call.
Downed power lines initially hampered suppression efforts, reported Sheridan Fire-Rescue, forcing crews to wait for MDU to secure the utilities before they could safely enter the home.
Once that was done, crews went inside for fire suppression and primary searches.
After the main body of the fire was knocked down, crews remained on scene performing extensive overhaul, hunting for hidden hot spots and ventilating the structures to clear heat and smoke.
Sheridan Police handled traffic control and scene security and helped firefighters establish the occupancy status of the buildings. Wyoming Regional EMS stood by for medical needs and firefighter rehabilitation.
The department initially reported that no occupants or pets were found inside during those searches and that no injuries to civilians, pets or emergency personnel were reported, but after the smoke cleared and they were able to go back inside they found Lily Flower curled up by the bed. The Frasers believe she died from smoke inhalation.
Sheridan Fire-Rescue turned the scene over to its origin-and-cause investigators, who are being assisted by the Wyoming State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Although the camper was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived, authorities have not publicly announced a cause or final point of origin.
‘Nothing’ Upstairs
“Nothing in the upstairs of our home is salvageable,” Fraser said.
The kitchen is gone.
Parts of the ceiling were torn out as firefighters chased the flames into the upper structure. Smoke permeated the house. Fire hoses poured water through rooms already damaged by heat and flame.
“Water, fire, smoke,” Fraser said.
Even the granite kitchen countertops were surrounded by devastation.
The family expects it could be the better part of a year before they can live in the house again.
They lost their two primary vehicles.
Yet downstairs, behind the doors their 14-year-old had closed, the boys’ rooms tell an entirely different story.
All their belongings survived. Fraser said there isn’t even smoke damage in the bedrooms.
It’s a dramatic real-world example of the advice Sheridan Fire-Rescue emphasized after the fire: working smoke alarms and closed interior doors can help slow the spread of smoke, heat and fire.
Standing On The Curb
“I just remember standing on the curb, watching everything and just holding my kids,” said Fraser.
“In that moment, just so grateful and so thankful that we were all able to get out,” she said.
Neighbors began pouring outside as well.
The 10-year-old stood outside in his underwear, clutching the family cat as the temperature hovered around 30 degrees. Neighbors rushed over with blankets, wool socks and slippers.
Friends have since organized a meal train. Strangers have offered them homes and spare vehicles after hearing that both of theirs were lost.
They have good insurance, Fraser said, and expect to replace their vehicles quickly. For the next month, they are staying at the home of a friend’s mother who is traveling abroad.
After that, their insurance company is expected to rent them a home while theirs is rebuilt.
“We’re fine,” Fraser said. “We’re so fortunate to have great insurance.”
She said they've experienced such an outpouring of love in the wake of this devastating event. "It's just been incredible."
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
