The good luck was as recent as last August, when Gary Wilson Jr. and his family battled the Black Cat fire, which burned 11 of their 12 acres. That fire scorched his father's house, too, but it survived.
The Wilsons lost some sheds and truckloads of lumber that Gary planned to use on a new house, but the main house stood strong through the Black Cat.
“It used to be the office down there and we've been turning it into a house over the years,” Wilson said. “My dad had been living in it for years, and we'd done a lot of work on it last summer.”
After surviving the Black Cat, the Wilsons had a good feeling about the place.
But a week ago Sunday, bad luck struck. Gary Wilson was home in Missoula. His dad was down in Mexico, preparing to end the snowbird season and return to Montana for the remainder of the year.
A friend was staying at the house just off Bunchgrass Lane north of the Frenchtown frontage road.
“He apparently had a fire for some reason and burned something that got a chimney fire started,” Wilson said. “So the fire department came out and got that fire out and that seemed to be the end of it.”
Wilson said he stayed at the house until 11 p.m. that Sunday, then headed for home. A sheriff's deputy was there as late as 1:30 a.m. Monday and all was well.
Then, at 3 a.m., a passing motorist called in a new fire, the cause of which is still under investigation. The house was fully engulfed.
“The whole thing was in flames,” Wilson said. “It's pretty much a total loss now. What's so bad is that we could have gotten a lot of stuff out if we'd have thought the fire might come back.”
Also burned in the fire was a 1971 Triumph Spitfire that Wilson had restored over the years.
“It was just about perfect, just needed some seats,” said Wilson, who runs Gary's Auto in Missoula.
Wilson's father was a gunsmith for years, and some guns survived the fire without much damage, but most of the home's possessions were lost.
“I got a clock that was my grandmother's, but that's about it,” Wilson said. “The loss is pretty much unfathomable.”
Even worse, the house was uninsured.
“The insurance company wanted a different kind of roof, so we were going to work on that this summer,” he said.
The roof, of course, is gone and now it's a matter of finding an entirely new roof for his father to live under once he returns.
“Right now, we'll take about anything that anyone can give us,” Wilson said. “We lost all the appliances, all the tools and equipment, furniture, just about everything. It's just a total loss, and we're really going to have to start over for my dad.”
You can help
A Gary Wilson relief fund has been set up at the Clark Fork Valley Bank in Frenchtown, or you can contact Gary Wilson Jr. by phone at work at 542-3458 or at home at 626-0084.
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.
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