Total loss The home of Ruth Boldan, Leader, was destroyed in a fire the evening of Jan. 10. Ruth and her great-grandchildren, Kelsie and Logan Weite, were able to escape the flames, thanks to Kelsie Fire destroyed the Boldan/ Weite family home in Leader Jan. 10, wiping out virtually all of their belongings; and leaving only memories of the country cottage situated just south of Swan Valley Lutheran Church along Hwy 64.

“It was a total loss,” said Motley Fire Chief Dave Greig. “Everyone got out of the house...there weren’t any injuries.” The fire was reported at 8:53 p.m. and the MFD, with assistance from the Pillager Fire Department, fought the fire for hours. It was finally extinguished around 7 a.m. the following morning.

“It doesn’t seem real that it’s gone,” 86-year-old Ruth Boldan, a retired schoolteacher, said in a telephone interview Jan. 11. “We’re just lucky we weren’t already sleeping.”

Ruth and her late husband, Budd, bought the place in 1958, a day before their daughter, Janine, was born. They already had two sons - H. James and Kelly; and the house was perfect for raising a young family.

For the past few years, Ruth’s granddaughter Dawn Weite, her husband Jeff and their children Kelsie and Logan have lived with her. “This house held so many memories for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” Ruth said. “I guess as long as we have our minds, we’ll have our memories.”

Memories appear to be all that is left of the Boldan house.

“It could have been a lot

worse,” Kelly Boldan, now

of Willmar, said recently. “Without the quick-thinking

of Kelsie; and a Bemidji couple who saw the fire and stopped to help, it could have been a lot worse,” he said again.

Fortunately, there were no injuries to any family members, Kelly added, explaining that at the time of the fire, Ruth and her greatgrandchildren Kelsie, 10 and Logan, 7, were home.

It was young Kelsie who first spotted the fire and yelled for the family to get outside, Kelly reported.

Ruth had gone down to the basement to check an electrical breaker at about 8:30 that evening. She and the great-grandchildren had been looking at family photos on the computer when they lost power. Kelsie heard a crackling noise at that time and went outside to check it out.

That was when she spotted

large flames, yelled, ‘fire’ and made sure her

great-grandmother and brother got out of the house. Dressed in pajamas, they were able to grab their coats and boots before heading out into sub-zero temperatures.

About that time, Matt and Jessie Sparby (along with their two children and Jessie’s mother) were driving north on Hwy 64, anxious to get home to Bemidji after attending a hardware show in Minneapolis.

“We saw the house on fire and turned the car around to see if we could help,” Matt said in a recent phone conversation.

They saw Ruth and the children outside, Matt recalled. “It was below zero out...real cold...the two kids were carrying dogs. The little girl saw us and said, ‘Hurry, our cat’s in there,’” Matt shared. “The little boy told me to forget the cat; we’d never catch it.”

Although he never found the cat, Matt was able to rescue a few household items from the burning building. “Other neighbors started coming by, helping to haul stuff out, too,” he added. At some point, the sheriff told them they had to stop going in the house, Matt said. Shortly after, it was engulfed in flames.

Meanwhile, Ruth and the children went to sit in the Sparby’s car; and Jessie used her cell-phone to call 911 and to notify other family members of the fire.

They got ahold of Janine, who lives just down the road from her mother; and they contacted Dawn and Jeff, who were out with friends celebrating Jeff’s birthday.

Ironically, Janine said, a bartender at the place the Weites were at received a call about a fire. Little did Dawn and Jeff know that the call was in reference to their house.

After he received word of the fire, Kelly said he drove from Willmar, arriving at around 11 p.m.

The 911 call by the Bemidji couple was critical, since the phone had been knocked out,” Kelly said.

Matt insists that he and his family only did what anyone else would have done in that situation.

“We felt we were there for a reason; and we were glad we could help,” Matt said. It was close to midnight before they made it back to Bemidji.

Ruth’s daughter Janine

Wells can’t say enough good

about the Sparby family. “They made sure everyone

was out of the house; they called 911; they wouldn’t leave until they knew everyone was safe.”

This is the second time in a year that someone from Bemidji has helped a Leader family during a fire, Janine said. “People in that community are my heroes,” she added. “So are my neighbors...there are so many people who stopped by that night to help.”

The family is also grateful to the Motley and Pillager Fire Departments for their hard work that cold January night.

“The fire department left sometime after 2 a.m. Sunday,” Kelly reported, adding that he and Jeff stayed to watch for any rekindling flames. “We had to call 911 again about 4:45 a.m. after a big flame up. The fire department came again and stayed until about 7 a.m. when they pulled out.”

Rescued from the fire were two of Budd’s trunks

which contained a lot of

family history, Kelly said. “However, the box of letters

dad had written to mom during WWII didn’t make it.”

Fortunately, Kelly added, he had recently taken all of his mother’s photos back to Willmar to scan. “So, those are safe.”

Motley Fire Chief Dave

Greig said that the fire is

still under investigation. “We’re leaning toward electrical,

though,” he said, contacted by phone Jan. 11.

There were a few re-kindles throughout the night, which Greig says are “... pretty normal this time of year.”

“Yes, a lot of things were destroyed in the fire; but we are very fortunate that no one was hurt,” Kelly said.

Ruth said she is proud of Kelsie and Logan for their quick thinking at the time of the fire. “They did everything they’ve been taught in school...they were just great.”

Unfortunately, Ruth said later, the family cat did not survive the fire. “We found it in the basement the next day...I think it was the fumes that killed it.”

For the time being, Ruth, a retired school teacher at Baxter and Lincoln Elementary in Brainerd; and the Weites (Dawn is a school teacher at Crosslake Community Charter School and her children are students there) will be living with Janine.

A Boldan-Weite fire benefit fund has been set up in care of Unity Bank, P.O. Box 7, Pillager, Minn., 56473.