Fire in White Mountain injures woman, destroys home

A fire broke out in Mary “Rose Ann” Titus’ home during the early hours of February 20 with Titus, her granddaughter Venessa Koonooka and great-grandson Colton Koonooka-Kowchee inside. They managed to escape from a window, but Titus suffered burns and the home was destroyed.

Eight-year-old Colton jumped out of the living room window soon after the fire first occured, and ran to look for help. He encountered Melody Bergamaschi, who dropped him off at his father's residence and alterted firefighter Shane Bergamaschi who called for help and went to aid the family members still inside the home.

The White Mountain Volunteer Fire Department received multiple calls around 6:30 a.m. Chief Jack G. Adams told the Nugget.

“As soon as I opened my front door – and I live about 300 yards from the structure that burned – I smelled it instantly, and I could tell by the amount of smoke the fire was pretty well along,” Adams said.

Firefighters responded right away, one of them Henry Titus, the son of Rose Ann. When he arrived, he heard Bergamaschi had helped his mother out of a window, after Venessa Koonooka jumped out, sustaining a dislocated knee. Because the fire started next to the one exit, the window was the only option.

As Bergamaschi helped Rose Ann out of the window, they both fell about 10 feet, Henry Titus reported.

“I stayed there containing the fire with the other crew, it became engulfed in flames pretty fast, and the fire chief decided it was about containment at that point,” Henry Titus told the Nugget.

Adams said it was important to contain the fire as there was a house nearby uphill and another close by downhill.

“We would have loved to have put it out but that was beyond what we could do because we couldn’t even get inside,” Adams said.

White Mountain has various fire hydrants dispersed throughout town; each house is within 500 feet of them so they can be reached by the hose stored in boxes next to the hydrant.
The WMVFD used the water from the hydrants to successfully contain the fire. They then stayed on site until nothing left of the structure was smoldering. The house was unsalvageable.  
“I’d say we were on the fire for five hours,” Adams said.
 

That morning, Rose Ann was sent to Anchorage to be treated for burns. She is still there, undergoing multiple surgeries, one completed on Sunday, with skin grafts to her back, her son reported. It is not known when she will be released, but she is stable.
“She was alert from the very beginning, obviously in a lot of pain though,” Henry Titus said.
 

The other people in the home were not harmed in the fire, and Henry said one positive is Rose Ann was awake and making coffee when the fire began so she was able to respond quickly.
 

The cause of the fire has not been officially determined but Henry suspects it was electrical, as his mother reported the breaker box being the source of the fire.
“Breaker boxes are located right near the entrance, in those 1990 houses. And they only have one door, and that’s at the entrance, with a ladder the back of the house,” Henry Titus said.
 

The Alaska State Troopers said they will not be investigating the fire.

Community Support

Adams said “basically the whole village” came out to help fight the fire.
 

“Every able-bodied person that could showed up and offered to help,” Adams said. “If there wasn’t anything to do then people just stood and were available in case there was something for them to do.”
 

In the days following the fire, a GoFundMe was started to support Rose Ann and her family, it’s titled ‘Support Roseanne’s Family After House Fire.”
 

Henry said many people have donated clothes and goods. During a basketball game a fundraiser took place for the family.
Henry is now writing letters to local corporations to get some housing assistance for his mother.  

This story has been updated to clarify that Colton first exited the structure to get the help of the Fire Department, that Venessa Koonooka exited the home from the window before first responders arrived, and correct the spelling of Rose Ann.