Jeff Fjelstul was enjoying the evening with his family on Monday at the their Kenmore home when his trauma class, which he took just two weeks ago, became very useful.
“We were just kind of doing our evening routine, washing dishes and I was writing, when I heard a big crash,” said Fjelstul, who lives in the 19000 block of 67th Ave. NE. “The front end of a car was in our [recreation] room and we hadn’t ordered one.”
Fjelstul could joke about it early Tuesday morning while waiting for his insurance adjuster. But the incident was anything but funny Monday night. A woman had driven straight into his home.
Fjelstul noticed the car destroyed his natural gas meter and gas began filling his home.
“I saw what I thought was smoke coming from the car,” he said. “I envisioned a mushroom cloud over Kenmore.”
One specific lesson from his trauma class kicked in – secure the scene first.
“I ran inside and cut the power to the house and my wife called 911,” he said.
That quick thinking may have saved his home, and possibly the neighborhood, as the uninterrupted gas line filled the cool night air with natural gas.
Fjelstul got his family and pets out of the home and opened all the doors and windows to let the gas out.
Puget Sound Energy officials, Kenmore Police, the Northshore Fire Department and King County Sheriff’s deputies were there within minutes.
“The firefighters stood off while the guys with the respirators went in and shut off the gas,” Fjelstul said. “From the time that the car hit the house until everything was cleaned up, it was just two hours. They did an amazingly fast job.”
The woman driving the car told neighbors that she hit a slick spot in the road. She was trapped in the car by a rhododendron bush.
She was taken to EvergreenHealth Medical Center for observation and questioning. There were no visible skid marks on the road, police noted.
A tow truck pulled the car from his rec room. It turned out that the smoke was just steam rising from a busted radiator.
Fjelstul said that his neighbors really helped his family as well.
“Our kids and pets stayed at the neighbor’s last night,” he said. “We didn’t turn the power back on until this morning and we did it slowly because there is some exposed wiring.”
Even more aggravating is that the Fjelstul’s just had their home remodeled, he said.
“[The rec room] is the only room my wife has finished decorating,” said Fjelstul.
But he is thankful that was all that was damaged.
“I was scared to death,” Fjelstul said. “I am so thankful I didn’t have to watch them put a fire out in my house.”
