BOZEMAN — Bill Feniger’s home was one of around 28 homes lost in the Bridger Foothills Fire that occurred 4 years ago. Bill’s home was turned to ash, but one of the few things that survived? A flagpole. Now, that home has finally been restored. So, what better way to celebrate than by raising the red, white, and blue?
“To be honest, we never thought we would lose the house,” Bill told me. “There was nothing left. Absolutely nothing. My mother's stuff, her mother’s stuff. Generations of stuff gone.”
The few things that did survive the fire were turned into art pieces that the Fenigers have on display in their new home. But one of those items was a bit too large to be brought inside.
“Well, the flagpole survived. It was damaged, but it survived,” says Bill.
That's when former Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin, who was on duty during the fire, stepped in and offered the Fenigers a new flag. But this was no ordinary flag. It was a flag from fallen officer Jake Allmendinger’s funeral.
“He brought it up and raised it where the old flag had burnt down. He raised it and we came up and it was just an unbelievable sight to see. Because the background was a burnt house,” says Bill.
On Wednesday, that sight was unbelievable for a different reason. For the last four years the Fenigers have been living in a rental home on the other side of Bridger Canyon, until a few months ago.
I asked Bill, “How does it feel to have a whole new home?”
He told me, “ It’s just a magnificent feeling. It’s a great recourse of going from the depths to the heights."
A new flagpole was installed just last week, so the Fenigers felt it was only right to invite the former sheriff back to help raise that same flag that means just as much today as it did then.
I asked Gootkin, “What does it mean to you that Bill invited you back for the flag raising?”
He told me, “Oh it warms the heart, it was really nice. You know, then I start to think about that whole incident, and all the things we did, and how amazing it is that no one lost their lives. It's just surreal."
Although there is now a pond where their old home used to be, which Bill calls, “from fire to water”, Bill says he’s proud of what they’ve accomplished with this new home.
“We’ve got a house that we’ve built and designed ourselves. And it’s everything we’ve always wanted. And it’s just replaces everything we loved before but better” says Bill.
