Joshua Cropper said he didn't know the people who lived in the two-story log home north of Wasilla.
But Cropper, a dog trainer, knew their pets: three red heelers and a golden doodle.
Saturday night, Cropper and friend Tom Hanson had just come back from dinner with Cropper's wife when they saw smoke rising from the house on Sleepy Hollow Circle, he said. Cropper lives in the area, a fairly remote series of neighborhoods off Schrock Road and tucked up against the Talkeetna Mountains.
At first, Cropper said Monday, he thought somebody was burning construction debris. Then he realized the house was on fire.
Owners Shawn and Hope Wolverton stood outside. She was hugging their daughter. He was spraying the flames with a garden hose, Cropper said.
"Their one surviving red heeler was outside," he said. "Only one got out."
Cropper and Hanson asked the distraught family where the other dogs were, he said. They didn't know.
So, Cropper said, the two men ran into the house to find them.
(Warning: This video contains profanity.)
Please share, this family can use some support. Three dogs lost, I feel horrible. Tom Hanson and I broke the back window and went in to save the dogs but couldn’t see or find them through the smoke. Can’t describe the sorrow we feel. Hug your animals and love ones as life is short and precious. We ended up in the lower bedroom and saved as much as possible until the flames forced us to leave. If anyone wants to help this family please let us know. Food and other donations for this family can be dropped off at J and J Food Market, 461 W. Parks Highway in Wasilla near Value Village. Please help this family out, write a check to Hope or Shawn Wolverton if you are willing, drop them off at J and J or mail them to 3102 E. Carney RD Wasilla Alaska and we will deliver them.
Posted by HPR Working Dogs on Sunday, June 17, 2018
They broke a back window to get in and headed upstairs through smoke so dense Cropper said he couldn't see walls or doors — and couldn't breathe.
"I kept running up and down the stairs," he said. "We'd take gasps of air and then run upstairs."
The men couldn't find the dogs. They left the upper floor and concentrated on a downstairs bedroom, tossing everything they could out a window to salvage some of the family's belongings, he said.
The family was shouting for them to get out, Cropper said. They did after flames began coming through the door.
They couldn't save the dogs.
Efforts to reach the Wolverton family were unsuccessful Monday.
Crews from the Central Mat-Su and West Lakes fire departments responded to the report of the fire that came in around 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
The property is listed as outside a fire-service area, according to Matanuska-Susitna Borough records.
Residents outside fire-service areas don't pay extra taxes for fire response. Departments generally don't respond unless there's a life safety issue, such as someone still inside a building that's on fire.
Firefighters responded and extinguished the fire, according to Ken Barkley, deputy director of fire with the borough's Department of Emergency Services.
Barkley declined to provide additional information.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The Red Cross responded to the fire, a spokeswoman said.
Food and other donations for the Wolverton family can be dropped off at J and J Food Market on the Parks Highway in Wasilla near Value Village.