On July 14, about 6:30 a.m., Glenoma resident Brooqe Shephard woke to the sound of her 2-year-old son crying. She saw smoke coming down the hallway from the kitchen.
Her house was on fire. Shephard rushed to her boyfriend, Tyson Pugh, and woke him up.
“We ran to grab our son who was in the hallway area crying and scared,” Shephard told The Chronicle on Aug. 6. “Tyson grabbed him and handed him over to me. I told Tyson we need to jump out of our bedroom window but it was broke so we had a board over it.”
Their only way out was through a back door that led into their unfinished addition — which didn’t yet have an exterior door installed.
But it had an opening.
“The unfinished addition had an open spot of a couple feet between the roof and siding,” Shephard wrote. “Tyson was able to jump up the wall and thankfully got himself through the hole. He had me lift Mattias up through the hole and over to him. At that point the flames were taking over and I was unable to escape the same way.”
According to Shephard, she started kicking the wall. From the outside, Tyson saw a crack forming. He yanked on it.
“Together we were able to get the wall down for me to escape,” Shephard said. “By the time we made it out to safety the fire was so big it was too late to save anything, but Tyson tried his best with the hose while waiting for the fire department to arrive.”
Shephard said the fire eventually cut off their water source. She brought her son next door, where they watched their home burn to the ground, “turning everything into ash and a melted mess.”
“We were all airlifted to hospitals where we were unfortunately separated,” Shephard wrote. “Tyson was airlifted to Seattle and Mattias and I to Portland. Tyson and Mattias got some burns but are healing well.”
Shephard thanks God they woke up when they did, calling the situation a ticking time bomb. They are grateful for the donations they’ve received, including money, clothes and house supplies.
But a month after the fire, Shephard, who works at Alta Forest Products in Morton, says they are still in need of many things. A GoFundMe has been set up on their behalf. The fundraiser is intended to cover medical expenses, help the family find housing and replace essential items. According to Shephard, Pugh’s father was the owner of the burned-down house.
As of presstime, $3,200 has been raised toward the $5,000 goal.
“Some things we'll never be able to replace, like family pictures, baby books, family heirlooms. Things like that are just simply irreplaceable,” Shephard wrote. “This may be the hardest thing we have had to face as a family. But we all made it out alive and I'm beyond grateful for that.”
To donate to the GoFundMe, visit https://gofund.me/d9817e0f.
