They filed by quietly on Saturday morning, parking on the south lot across the railroad tracks from 218 West First Avenue, coming and going as their schedules allowed. Some came to say goodbye, others just to take in the show.

“We had chores planned today,” Adam Seichter said as he stood across the railroad tracks with children Carter and Lyrik. “This is much more fun.”

If anything though, the crowd that gathered for a final viewing of and farewell to 218 First Avenue in Stanley was patient. After those overseeing the blaze tested water hoses and lead trainees through the building, the first sign that something wasn’t quite right was white smoke through the broken thirdfloor attic window at 9:45 a.m., caused by a dry bale used as fire starter. The attic, meanwhile, had been sealed off previously along with the basement,

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FROM PAGE 1 lest firefighter or trainee confusion in an actually burning house on borrowed time, lead to tragedy.

With broken glass from fire axes punctuating the morning activities, followed by interior fire suppression and bursts of smoke out the top windows, the flames themselves became visible on the outside almost three hours later, past noon, having made an appearance now and then through the house windows now and then for onlookers. Apparently they weren’t kidding when they said ‘controlled.’ “Usually it takes five minutes from a small fire to being fully engulfed,” SCI employee Richard Stelzer said as he watched from his vehicle, saying that he went through fire training as a part of his job and knew many of the firefighters. One-time resident John Logan, now in his seventies, told of how he had lived in the Erdman residence for a short time as a child, before his family moved over near 221 Church Street, which according to Logan abutted land that had once belonged to a Civil War veteran.

“They’re burning my house!” he said of the firefighter training exercises underway at 218 First Avenue Saturday, with fire personnel from the Altoona, Eleva, Owen-Withee, Fall Creek and Stanley departments among those who were on-site to practice their drill skills.

Also present, and ultimately taking down the house’s brick chimney with the leverage of a fire hose, were two people clad in gear that said ‘CVTC Instructor’ and a few others in darker jackets that just said “Green.” Logan shared his memories of the old Dr. Erdman house, which he said the family had rented from Charlie Hoffman (pronounced ‘Huffman’), who lived in the white house just over at the next lot.

Earlier in the week, we heard from former and more recent resident Dennis Schneider, a semi-retired house repair store worker in Eau Claire. Schneider’s heart sank when a co-worker brought him an article on 218 First Avenue, in Stanley: ‘Old home to undergo controlled burn on March 27.’ “Didn’t you used to live there?” the co-worker asked. Indeed, Schneider had.

“I didn’t even know it was for sale,” Schneider said by phone Wednesday of the home that he rented for a year-and-a half 14 years ago in Stanley, even going so far as to plant a small tree out front. “If I had known, I would have sold my home in Eau Claire and bought it to fix up,” he said of the old doctor’s house he once rented being up for sale not long back.

Sold to the Chippewa County Housing Authority on November 20, 2019 for a total of $42,000 by Charles and Linda Craemer, with listed address at Bruce, Wisconsin, the old doctor’s home on First Avenue in Stanley was quite the place back in the day, Schneider shared. While an open staircase from the house was sold long ago to a new log home in Colorado, other features of 218 First Avenue are even better: a 10 x 12 x 9 foot wine vat in the basement.

“The doctor was a drinker,” Schneider explained, also mentioning that Erdman had a garage for his Model A with a stand-up oil change pit, with another garage for trucks. Dave Jankoski, who brought the original information on Dr. Erdman to us, mentioned that the doctor kept a sleigh as well.

Speaking of the backyard, Schneider said that there was even a cobblestone driveway underneath sod leading to the nearby alleyway. Also included with the 1901 original by Dr. Erdman was a north patio and sculpture garden (for entertaining guests and since dismantled), along with four original stained-glass windows at the residence.

Reached Thursday afternoon, Chippewa County Housing Authority Director Jessica Bue said that the initial intention had been to rehab the building and sell it to “a low-to-moderate income family,” but that after lead paint and other hazards brought the cost of renovations upwards of $400,000 the Housing Authority’s initial plan just wasn’t feasible. Prior to the home being burned by CVTC for firefighter training purposes, several items were removed, lest they be lost to the flames. With the old house at 218 First Avenue now reduced to ashes as of Saturday March 27, the County Housing Authority plans to build a new home and pursue its plan of sale to a low-to-moderate income family.

But while it may not have been possible to save 218 First Avenue from the fire fiend in the end, that doesn’t mean nobody looked at it while on the market. We met them—on Saturday.

“We went through it when it was first for sale,” Don Giwonja said. “I said, ‘this would take too much work,’” he shared, echoing the Housing Authority’s assessment. Giwonja also shared that his late mother-in-law Lora Lane had been born in the house, something he had learned from his wife. Perhaps the most interesting story, though, came from an onlooker named TJ Syrczuk, who said that he had heard about it through Facebook and also knew the Stanley Fire Chief.

“I was in a training fire once,” he said, “and it was the most insane thing.” The house Syrczuk had been in, he said, had hip roofing “like a barn,” which started to come down on those inside. The fire started to climb the sloped walls, leading to the ascertaining by those overseeing the burn that it was ‘time to get out.’ It all caused a slight panic as everyone inside hurried down the stairs.

One might safely say that the fire Saturday morning was less eventful than the fire Syrczuk was in.

“Are they ever going to set it on fire?” a passerby asked as the crews took their time going about things to make sure it was all safe. The truth was that the house had already been lit, but in such a controlled environment it took longer than usual to reach the inferno stage. Let us then recount the series of events, loosely stated.

8:30 a.m. and prior – fire crews on sight getting things ready.

9:38 a.m. – sirens from CVTC fire truck on site.

9:45 a.m. – hoses into position, first hint of something wrong as white smoke emerges from the third-floor attic window, then from gaps in the shingles, and finally from the chimney.

9:50 a.m. – broken glass from a south side window as a fire ax is used to make an opening, followed by hose out the window. Jeff Trunkel and son Dayne among those watching from the south side parking area, riding their bikes.

9:50 – 10:00 a.m. – smoke decreases briefly. Fire suppression?

10:00 a.m. – Water from elevated hose on the ladder truck, watching over the north side and nearby houses.

10:05 a.m. – smoke under the roof rafters, then the hose out the window.

10:16 a.m. – 31 minutes from first attic smoke, still no visible flame outside. This is a well-controlled fire.

10:26 a.m. – smoke, still no flame.

10:28 a.m. – more chimney smoke.

10:30 a.m. – smoke out second floor west windows.

10:32 a.m. – window vent hole out east side with fire axe, broken glass, water hose.

10:35 a.m. – dry bale smoker brought in front door 10:36 a.m. – firefighters go in, still no flame.

10:37 a.m. – second Boyd-Edson Delmar ambulance leaves with siren down East First Avenue. Was not aware of presence. Came from Boyd earlier, apparently on call elsewhere.

10:38 a.m. – stand up extension ladder taken from east side of house, demonstrated standing position 10:39 to 10:40 a.m. – flames first seen inside through upper southeast window. “Do you see it?” one asks his car friend The commnet is made that bottom windows are boarded up to keep from exploding as gas builds up inside. “You probably couldn’t breathe in there right now,” one watcher says.

10:55 a.m. – call by CVTC Instructor for “water can.” Axes and other fire tools moved.

10:58 a.m. – hoses in through west door.

11:00 a.m. – black smoke from west door on first floor and under boarded up window on first floor 11:05 a.m. – Car count across tracks at 29, then 30.

Around 11:10 a.m. – flames visible through first floor southeast window 11:25 a.m. – lots of smoke on east side, sound of hose and venting. Also sound of birdsong similar to that heard at sunset in countryside area.

11:29 a.m. – crackling of fire heard.

11:30 a.m. – first floor smoke with heat distortion on east wall.

11:35 a.m. – STILL no outside flames. This planned fire is controlled far more than unplanned ones.

11:38 a.m. – hose being extracted out west door.

11:50 a.m. – Large white plume above roof line from north side.

11:54 a.m. – firefighters in gas masks seen leaving residence area, crossing First Avenue.

11:58 a.m. – Staff leaves to cancel prior appointment as burn is taking longer than expected.

12:14 p.m. – return 16 minutes later from stepping away to charge phone. Broken window on southwest first floor living room, a change.

Flames appear outside west living room window, suppressed with water and resulting smoke burst, reappear near window top outside after initial suppression Before and/or by 12:36 p.m.

Fire outside on second floor by window, climbs wall corner, then spreads.

12:46 – large smoke plume out second floor southwest window. Laura Schuldes and son Sawyer watch from a distance. Grandpa Jeff Ryba is on the Stanley Fire Department.

12:54 p.m. – Nature chimes in, with light rain beginning to fall on the area.

1:20 p.m. – after showing signs for several minutes with plumes trailing from the shingles, the roof beings to cave.

1:25 p.m. – the front door of the home melts in 1:33 p.m. – time recorded but not the specific event.

1:41 p.m. – second story front?

Late afternoon – taped off but still smoldering. Fire trucks off site. Passerby on foot stops to speak with a passing vehicle on McKnight Street.

9:45 p.m. Saturday night – taped off area still smoldering, orange glow and flame present as fire in basement burns itself out. Later on a light snow begins to fall.

5:00 p.m. Sunday – Ladder truck, fire-rescue, tender, and pickup, then a bigger tender truck head up North Franklin/County H out of the city. Training to be put to use. Another fire truck follows.

Sunday evening – Stanley fire-rescue and ladder truck seen on site, with telltale water residue on First Avenue telling the final chapter – no more fire.

At present – site still taped off for safety reasons, with basement now a pit open to the larger environment.