A family of six narrowly escaped a house fire with their lives Sunday evening, but things could have been a lot worse if Anchorage's Daren Beals hadn't decided to take the scenic route.
Beals, 50, was driving from Eagle River to Chugiak with his girlfriend Irene Bush, and two other family members when he decided — on a whim, he said Monday — to take the quieter Old Glenn instead of the quicker Glenn Highway. As they drove past the home the Sparks family has lived in for more than 30 years, Beals said he noticed something odd.
"I was like, 'There's some weird smoke coming from next to the road,'" Beals recalled.
A trained volunteer firefighter and EMS captain who works as a health and safety advisor for ConocoPhillips on the North Slope, Beals is no stranger to life-threatening situations.