Family loses home, car and animals in devastating house fire

IDAHO FALLS — A local man, his wife and his brother lost nearly everything after a fire completely gutted their home earlier this month.

The fire happened at the Weston home, three miles off Yellowstone Highway on North 75th East, on Sept. 11, around 9 p.m. Randy Weston and his brother, who both have disabilities, were already asleep for the night, but Randy’s wife, Victoria, was still awake. She smelled smoke but didn’t think much of it because there had been fires in their area in recent weeks.

While Randy was lying in bed, he started smelling something that smelled like chemical burning coming from the vent in his room.

“I texted her and said, ‘Do you smell smoke?'” Randy recalled. “And she said, ‘Yeah.'”

Victoria went to the front door and immediately rushed back inside, yelling, “It’s on the deck!”

They threw three pitchers of water on the fire and emptied an entire fire extinguisher, but the blaze kept growing. From the time they saw the fire to the time it engulfed their house in flames was 10 to 15 minutes, according to the Westons.

Randy, Victoria, Randy’s brother and a dog were all able to get out of the house. But the Westons lost their four cats and another dog in the fire. Victoria’s car was parked in front of the house, and it caught on fire. His brother’s truck was next to the house, and the passenger side of it got singed.

Randy had the ashes and heirlooms of his mother, sister and grandmother inside. Victoria’s parents’ wedding bands were inside their home too. They had a military service wall dedicated to their family in their living room, and it was all destroyed in the blaze.

“All our keepsakes of our family are just gone,” he said.

The Westons live on farmland and have been having to ration water, so the entire front yard burned up because it was so dry.

“It caught the whole front yard on fire, which caught my wood fence on fire, which led over to my son’s house which is about 100 feet away,” Randy said. “It caught the south wall of it on fire. … His is not bad. … Nothing really got inside the house.”

Randy said it’s unknown what caused the fire. He pointed out that there’s no electrical outlets or wiring where they originally saw the flames. The Westons said they were told by fire officials that the fire is believed to have started underneath the deck then it came up.

“The bottoms of the floorboards that survived are more charred than the tops of the floorboards,” Randy said.

In the days afterward, they have been cleaning up the aftermath and sifting through the wreckage. The family is living in their motorhome.

Despite the tragedy, the Westons have seen good during this trying time. They are thankful for the firefighters who arrived quickly and “kept things under control to the best of their abilities.”

“The neighbors have stepped up, the community and the church. The chaplains were here that night. Red Cross came that night,” he said. “Our community is an amazing, outstanding community. I can’t praise our community any higher. I’ve lived in many states … and this is by far the best community I’ve ever seen in such devastation, react.”

Randy receives a disability pension, and his wife helps take care of him. Randy’s brother is retired and receives Social Security.

A GoFundMe has been started to help the Westons. Funds donated will help with replacing their car they lost in the fire, as well as other necessities. Donations will also help them secure a place to live while they recover and rebuild. To donate, click here.