A Huntley man narrowly escaped a wildfire Sunday after flames destroyed his home and several vehicles on Yellowstone Trail Road, and his daughter said he had only seconds to get out alive.
Les Staebler, who is in his 70s, disabled, and lives alone, made a split-second decision to run back into his burning home to grab car keys before fleeing the rapidly spreading fire.
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"He made the judgment call to run back into his house and grab the first set of keys to the vehicle that he could get," his daughter, Dayna Rivinius, said in a video interview. "And by the time he got out, the flames were already waist high around him."
Rivinius, who lives in Oklahoma, said she was on the phone with her father during the fire, feeling helpless as the situation unfolded.
"He was watching the fire, and he was up there by himself," Rivinius said.
Rivinius was asked if Staebler had minutes or seconds to escape the fire.
"I would go with seconds," she said. "Had he taken a breath, he would have gone down, and, I mean, it's no quicker than us taking a breath. Due to his medical conditions, he would have died right there."
Staebler managed to reach one of his vehicles and drove out of the fire blind, with smoke and flames surrounding him.
"The smoke was so thick, the flames were waist-high," Rivinius said. "He said he didn't even know how that vehicle started. But it started and he just threw it in reverse and was driving blindly, you know, to get out of the fire."
The fire started on Yellowstone Trail Road, with wind pushing the flames up the hill toward Staebler's home.
Firefighters were unable to save the house but contained the fire to 100 acres.
Shepherd Volunteer Fire Department, Lockwood Rural Fire District #8, Blue Creek Fire, Fuego Fire, Billings Fire, Laurel Volunteer Fire, AMR ambulance and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation each responded, according to Worden Fire Chief Lance Taylor.
Neighbor Jim LaFrance said the flames reached 10 feet high and that the destruction could have been far worse had firefighters not intervened.
"If it would have gone over this hill," LaFrance said. "If it would have gone any farther than it did, all those houses would have burned up."
"Those flames were 10 feet high on this burning," LaFrance said. "It's dry grass, but they stopped it all around here."
Rivinius said she is grateful beyond words for the firefighters' efforts and for her father making it out alive.
"I have never prayed so hard in my life," Rivinius said. "Just to hear his voice that he made it out. I'm very thankful for that."
"Oh, I'm beyond thankful," Rivinius said. "Words can't even describe. I almost don't even want to ask God for anything else because I got my dad."
Rivinius set up a GoFundMe page to help Staebler.
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