Girdwood home destroyed in fire: Cause under investigation

Ken Smith/ Turnagain Times A girdwood firefighter stands in the charred remains of Bill Halliday’s home after it went up in flames Sept. 29 at 3 p.m. Halliday left the house while a wood stove was burning. The fire is considered “suspicious” and under investigation by the State Fire Marshall.

By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times

A Girdwood home owned by resident Bill Halliday was destroyed in a fire Sept. 29. Girdwood firefighters arrived at the single family home on Beirne Street around 3 p.m. The cause of the fire is considered “suspicious” and the State’s Fire Marshall is investigating.
“We had it knocked down within five minutes,” said Fire Chief Bill Chadwick. “Nobody was in the house, but Bill had surgery a couple of days ago, so we made a really aggressive attack because we thought he might be in there. But nobody was. If he was inside he probably would have been dead.”
Halliday arrived shortly after the blaze was put out. He told Chadwick that he’d started a fire in his wood stove then left the house.
Three volunteer fire fighters initially responded then nine more arrived along with two Anchorage units.
“At the time of the fire we had a fire call at Timberline Condos,” said Chadwick. “The building was full of smoke. There was some construction done on the building and some visqueen plastic sheeting was left wrapped around the smoke stack, and they didn’t unwrap it. So, we had to ventilate it. We’ve had a very busy afternoon.”