POCATELLO — For nearly 30 years, Dave and Faith Kinsey, from their property on Elk Road, enjoyed one of the best views that living in the Mink Creek area can provide. Today they can see much of the early devastation caused by the Charlotte fire.
Their home, and lifetimes worth of memories and possessions were also claimed by the fire last June.
They are ready to rebuild.
“As soon as possible,” Dave said. “It snows early up here.”
The plan is get the home framed and closed in before winter makes working outdoors prohibitive, and then to work on the home’s interior during the cold months.
The property is already graded and the Kinseys plan on building a similar sized home, albeit with a number of differences.
“We’re just waiting for the building permit,” Faith said. “It’s a little less square footage, not much, maybe 50 square feet smaller than the other house, but it’s got a bigger garage.”
That larger garage will allow for the storage space they previously had via a shed, which was also lost to the Charlotte fire. They don’t plan on replacing that, so the additional garage space is needed.
Some other changes they plan include a few features typically found in a home designed for those with disabilities, such as larger doors for wheel chair access. There will also be no stairs from the home to the garage.
“You can roll straight into the house (from the garage),” Faith said.
Neither Dave nor Faith use a wheel chair, but several years ago, a medical procedure left Faith using a wheel chair for a while and the couple found her access quite limited.
The home itself will still be a single level but with some larger closets and a more open floor plan.
“Whatever the style is now, that’s what you build,” Faith said.
Their hope is to be back on their property, living in their new home, by the spring.
The couple said rebuilding was never a question in their minds.
“We never gave it a thought, about building some where else, or buying some where else,” Faith said. “We love it here, and that’s whey we are building. We never even discussed it, we are going to rebuild and that’s it.”
Faith was working at her store in Pocatello, Otter Creek Gifts & Coffee, located at 322 W. Jefferson., the afternoon of June 28, when the Charlotte fire started.
Dave was home, however. He saw the smoke early on, when he stepped out on to his back deck.
“He called me and said, ‘I think we are in trouble,’” Faith said.
“I saw the smoke down below when it first started,” Dave elaborated. “I called her and then I called a friend of mine who lives over here and asked him if he knew about it. He did.”
Pointing to a ridge to the southwest, Dave said within a few minutes of noticing the smoke, he saw the flames coming over that ridge from the Charlotte Road area. He said they continued to spread quickly.
“That wind, the way the wind was blowing, it got here way too quick,” Dave said.
That left him little time to grab anything.
“I just grabbed the dogs and jumped in the truck and headed for town,” he said. (We) lost everything. Every last thing. The entire past is gone in an afternoon.”
“Everything,” Faith said. “The only thing we really regret at all is pictures because you can’t replace those. “All the rest, when you get down to it, are just things. And no one was hurt, and that’s the best thing, no one died in this fire.”
Dave said the philosophy they have subscribed to is simple — There was a fire and things will be lost, things that they will never be able to replace.
“I think we’re handling it,” he said. “There ain’t no use in whining.”
Instead, Dave ponders the future, thinking about how it will one day look.
“Everybody starts planting trees, it will look different, maybe better,” he said before turning to the thriving remnants of their lawn. “This lawn was burned black all in here, but with what little water we were able to get on it, it’s started to come back.”