By Jodi Hausen
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
BOZEMAN, Mont. — Two men died in a fire that raged through a Bozeman apartment building early Tuesday.
Several other people lost their home but escaped unharmed. Some climbed through windows; one woman tossed her pets from a second-floor window and then jumped herself.
Fire officials identified the victims as Dale C. Beard, 29, and Jacob P. Neuman, 30, both of Bozeman. The two men were found unconscious in a bedroom of a third-floor apartment at 215 S. 18th Ave., said Bozeman Fire Chief Jason Shrauger.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but witnesses say the wind-fueled fire leapt swiftly up the front of the building, obliterating the wooden deck-and-stair structure that provided the only means of escape for tenants on the building’s upper floors.
Chris Delmotte, his wife, Dusty, and their 5-month-old child lived in the daylight basement apartment below the decking and stairs.
The family had been sleeping when the fire broke out just before 1 a.m., but Dusty Delmotte had gotten up to go to the bathroom.
“I went to the restroom and came back out and saw fire outside the window,” she said. “It just went from a little thing to a big thing really quick.”
A couch outside the Delmotte’s apartment window was in flames, Chris Delmotte said.
He threw a comforter onto it to try and smother the flames.
“I was so half asleep; I was looking for glasses of water” to douse the fire, he said. “But then I saw the stairs and deck were on fire.”
“By the time we were out of the building, every stairway to every doorway was engulfed,” Dusty Delmotte said. “I saw it in the window and the next thing I knew the window was breaking. I had no idea what was going on.”
Because of the heat, opening the door “was not even an option,” she said.
The couple climbed out a window on the opposite side of the building, passing the sleeping baby through.
“The baby slept through the whole thing,” Chris Delmotte said.
Vanessa Gunnell tossed her two dogs to police just before jumping about nine feet out a second-story window.
“My dog woke me up in the middle of the night, thankfully,” Gunnell said later Tuesday.
She saw flames coming over the front door, and the paint on the walls was melting.
“It took awhile for me to comprehend what was going on,” Gunnell said. “For a split second I thought about opening the door and throwing water on it. Thank goodness I didn’t.”
Instead she “threw up a window and started yelling.”
Bozeman police officers and neighbors were outside the building, and Gunnell said she “picked up one dog and hucked her out the window.”
Then she did it again with the other, no easy task with one dog weighing about 75 pounds, she said.
“I think adrenaline had a lot to do with it,” Gunnell said. “Those are my kids.”
When asked how she got herself out, she responded, “I don’t even know how it happened. I know I came out the window.”
Thomas Geraghty, who was evacuated from his adjacent apartment building, watched as Gunnell and her dogs escaped the inferno.
“I was just finishing up some homework when I heard what sounded like a fight outside,” said the Montana State University architecture student. “I heard popping and loud voices.”
But then he saw the bright, red glow of the flames reflecting in his window. As a future architect, the fire’s rapid spread gave him pause.
“I would’ve thought there’d be better fire protection between the floors,” he said.
Kamron Hansen and his four roommates lived in a three-story apartment in the same building.
Hansen was watching “Futurama” on his computer when life became somewhat surreal, he said. He opened the blinds and saw flames licking up the wall outside his window.
“I heard what I thought was a car, but it was a fire,” he said, standing in front of the charred remains of the four-unit building where he used to live. “I started to yell.”
Hansen shouted for a fire extinguisher and told his four roommates to get out.
But the men quickly realized a fire extinguisher wouldn’t help.
“The front (of the building ) went up in like two minutes,” Hansen said.
Fortunately for the five men, the fire spread upwards and much of their belongings were spared.
“The fire department response was absolutely amazing,” said Hansen’s roommate, Josh Thornton. “If it weren’t for them, we would have lost everything.”
Despite being on scene within three minutes of the call, strong winds had already fanned the flames into a frenzy, Shrauger said.
Roughly 44 firefighters from all three Bozeman fire stations, Fort Ellis, Central Valley and Rae Sourdough fire departments encountered heavy smoke and flames on the south side of the building when they arrived.
About 15 law enforcement officers were also on scene and helped evacuate tenants, Shrauger said.
Both sides of South 19th Avenue between Koch and Babcock streets were closed until about 6:30 a.m.
Other than the two fatalities, Shrauger said he was unaware of any injuries.
Investigators are still trying to establish how the fire started and the causes of Beard’s and Neuman’s deaths.
Upon learning that two men perished in the blaze, Dusty Delmotte’s sister, Jaymie Larsen, began to cry ". That could have been them,” she said of her family. “I’m just glad my sister had the instinct to grab her baby and get out.”
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