By Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A fire ripped through and destroyed the home of an 87-year-old Sweet Home man and his family late Saturday.
Firefighters responded to a report of the blaze at 10:26 p.m. at 28441 Hwy. 20, west of Sweet Home.
Homeowner Gene Amundson was home alone sleeping, he said. He heard something that woke him up, and he saw red light through the cracks in his bedroom door.
“I woke up, but I thought (granddaughter) Norma Jean was going upstairs with a flashlight,” Amundson said, referring to his granddaughter, who lived in the house. He opened the door and saw the fire. He grabbed a fire extinguisher, pulled the pin, used it and then threw it into the fire.
Closing the door, he called 9-1-1 and started looking for a way out.
He had to kick the air conditioner out of the window to get out of the room, said his daughter Diana Henthorne.
At that point, “it was just billowing,” she said.
“It was just coming in every place,” Amundson said.
The fire quickly spread into his bedroom after he escaped. He sat in his car nearby while firefighters and medics responded. They found the structure fully involved upon arrival.
“I went to the hospital the other night,” Amundson said Monday. “They checked me out (for smoke inhalation) and let me go home.”
Amundson has stayed with his daughter since the fire. His granddaughter, Norma Jean Hartman and her roommate, Nicole Sherwood, had recently moved into the house but were gone that night. They have been staying on the site salvaging what they can.
The cause of the fire is undetermined, said Sweet Home Fire Chief Dave Barringer.
“I’ve been scared of fire all my life,” Amundson said. “So I was very careful.”
He is one of those who turns off and unplugs everything, he said.
Firefighters were able to save the garage and vehicles.
The home is insured, Barringer said. The Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District estimated the value of the loss at $200,000 for the structure and $75,000 for the contents, with about $10,000 in contents saved in the garage area.
The family lost a cat and an iguana, while another cat survived. A cat and a dog were still missing Monday.
Amundson said he lost almost everything in the fire, but some things survived.
“Norma Jean has been finding treasures, pictures of all things,” Henthorne said.
She and her friends turned up a large number of photos that survived, while a safe and guns stored in a gun safe were destroyed. She also found a gun and a knife with sentimental value that were partially damaged.
Amundson had lived in the house for 55 years, he said. “I was almost a native.”
“He met my mom (Frannie Amundson) out there,” Henthorne said. “That’s where she was living then.”
The Amundsons raised their son and daughter there, and their granddaughter grew up in that house.
“That (home) had a lot of memories,” Henthorne said.
The family received help from the Red Cross and from friends and family, Henthorne said “His friends and his brother gave him money to buy clothes. Everybody’s been really just fabulous. People are just insanely awesome.”
“I’ve just had a lot of good friends,” Amundson said.
Hartman’s and Sherwood’s friends have also been helping out with supplies and clothing as well as sifting through the debris.
The family is not seeking donations or additional help at this point, Henthorne said.
Sweet Home firefighters responded with an engine and two tenders. Lebanon Fire Department assisted with two tenders and a pumper-tender, and Brownsville provided a tender, to ensure firefighters did not run out of water.