Family reflects after Gray fire levels their Medical Lake home

Tristan and Isaiah Tonasket stood in the dancing glow of the firelight, staring at the burning rubble where their home once stood.

Ashes covered their front yard, spongy and warm underfoot. Clouds of bitter smoke blew over them as they tried to spot their possessions amid the wreckage. The roar of helicopters and wail of sirens had stopped around sunset, leaving only the crackle of flames licking at the ruins of homes.

The Tonaskets pointed at what they recognized: a grill near where the front door used to be, the washer and dryer over on the left were brand new.

“That pile right there, I’m pretty sure that’s my daughter’s bedroom,” Tristan Tonasket said.

Dozens of people in southern Medical Lake have lost their homes in the Gray Fire which, as of Saturday evening, had burned 9,500 acres and destroyed 185 structures.

The Tonaskets returned to their home on the south end of Prentis Street on Friday night, a few hours after the worst of the fire had passed. There wasn’t much left.

Despite losing nearly everything they own, Tristan and Isaiah were relatively stoic.

“The fact that my kids and animals are safe – everything else is replaceable,” Tristan said.

The Tonaskets rescued a few precious items before the Gray Fire tore through. Tayden, 16, got his video games, and his 11-year-old sister, Aaliyah, grabbed her stuffed animals. Isaiah saved his grandfather’s rifle.

The family’s 19-year-old cat, Shirley, is fine, and their miniature wiener dogs – Mosby, Mavis, Maverick and Mr. Grunt – are alive and well, too.

But the fire incinerated a host of heirlooms and items with sentimental value, including the love letters Tristan and Isaiah sent each other as high school sweethearts, Isaiah’s grandfather’s 1954 Ford F-100 and Tristan’s grandmother’s artwork.

Tayden, who got his driver’s license two months ago, lost his 2002 Acura sedan. Parts of the melted windshield remained draped over the steering wheel, like pizza dough. The fire liquified the aluminum rims of the wheels, leaving behind silver puddles of metal that glinted in the light of the flames.

“He loved that car,” Isaiah said.

Isaiah walked over to where his garage used to be and gestured at the remains of a 1969 Mustang, its paint stripped by the fire. He was fixing it up and planning to give it to Tristan as a 20-year anniversary present.

Like many wildfires, the Gray Fire devastated some families and inexplicably spared others.

The Tonaskets’ next-door neighbor, Brian Raska, got lucky. Parts of his lawn were charred, but the fire stopped a few feet from his house.

“I don’t know how we came out unscathed,” Raska said.

Tristan and Isaiah have lived at the south end of Prentis Street for nine years. They raised their kids here and, as composed as they were, they admitted their emotions were bouncing between highs and lows.

“I cried a little bit,” Isaiah said as flakes of ash fell gently into his hair, “not gonna lie.”