Pierce is a tiny town of 457 residents in Clearwater County where the small shops, houses and buildings are surrounded by a thick forest of evergreen trees. The history of gold ore discovered here haunts the glittering creeks where people still pan for flecks of the precious metal. In the summer, people pass through on their way to the North Fork of the Clearwater River, sometimes onward into the depths of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests.
Johnathan Halle has called Pierce home since he was a young teen. Now 21, he has his own place outside of town. He has a small fire pit, and invited his closest friends over for the Fourth of July earlier this month.
“We were just having a fire, kind of just hanging out, just talking, having a good time, not even listening to music, just enjoying each other’s company,” he said. “It was a really beautiful thing.”
All of a sudden, someone started to pour — or throw — something in the fire. Halle was turning away just as it happened, and didn’t quite see.
Halle heard an explosion, then another. His ears were ringing. His back was engulfed in flames as he ran over to the front of his house and rolled around on rocks to try to quell the fire as it crawled up his body.
He heard a woman screaming his name, over and over.
Halle got up and turned to her, and tried to put out the flames on her burning clothes as his own arms caught fire.
The chaotic scene led to seven of the nine friends who got together that night being picked up by ambulance and transferred to the Clearwater Valley Hospital in Orofino to await transfer to a hospital that could handle the severity of their burn injuries.
Rather than taking a helicopter ride, “they drove me all the way there (by ambulance), because I don’t have insurance, which sucks,” Halle said.
Living in a remote mountain town means being far away from the resources of big hospitals. Halle rode for eight hours to get to the Regional Burn Center at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The EMTs did their best to comfort him along the way, Halle said, talking to him and trying to lift his spirits.
“It was really cool to just have somebody with a good soul there,” he said.
Halle spent 17 days at the hospital getting treatment for his severe burns. He got skin grafts on both his right and left arm, “but I’m doing OK, I’m doing A-OK,” he said.
Most of his other friends had bad injuries to their legs and bodies and couldn’t walk, Halle said. Multiple victims were in critical and serious condition in the ICU when they first arrived, according to a spokesperson for the hospital.
After a couple days of getting treatment, Halle was cleared to leave his hospital room and see his friends.
“I was walking around and visiting anybody and everybody I could, trying to make them laugh, put a smile on their faces,” he said, adding that they are all strong people. “The way everybody carried themselves is genuinely impressive.”
Halle grew up in Sacramento before moving to small-town Idaho.
“This rural world, this smaller world, the community is behind us,” he said. Pierce is a town where almost everyone knows each other by name, and Halle said he has been moved by the support from people across the region since the tragedy.
Texts started pouring in from people he didn’t often talk to, people said they were praying for him, and friends and family members set up GoFundMe accounts to raise funds for the families traveling back and forth and the medical bills that continue to pile up. A benefit concert featuring country artist Jake Jacobson was held to help raise funds for the victims.
“So many people showed up to support us,” Halle said.
The outpouring of encouragement was unlike anything Halle had ever felt.
“I remember sitting here, (in the hospital) kind of feeling alone,” he said. But after scrolling social media, and seeing how much people care, Halle said it made getting through the tough times easier.
“It’s a lot on the mind, it really is,” he said. “But when you have this many people in your corner, it makes things easier. It calms the storms in your mind.”
His friends in the hospital feel the same way, he said.
Halle was discharged from the hospital Tuesday, and he’s back home in Pierce. He found that his house had been repainted by his family while he was away, his friends had come over to help clean and his boss had bought him new furniture.
“Whether it be just bringing over a burger or just saying hi, anything and everything is appreciated,” he said. “All of us that are involved in the accident are so extremely grateful to see how quick our community came together to help support us in this long and tiring journey.”
Halle said the memories of the accident will stay with him — and with his friends — for a long time. And he hopes it serves as a warning to other young people that safety matters.
“No matter what mindset you’re in, if other people are telling you, ‘No,’ maybe you shouldn’t do it,” Halle said.
He’s hoping to be fully healed up and back to his construction job in two or three weeks. But the sound of the sirens from the ambulance and the screams of people calling his name still echo in his mind.
“I haven’t really been sleeping the best,” Halle said. “But coming home to this has really helped me. The support and love from everybody has really helped me be in higher spirits.”
Only victim KC Matos Browning remains in the hospital in serious condition as of Tuesday, July 21, according to Brian Donohue, a spokesperson for the University of Washington School of Medicine.
The Idaho State Fire Marshal is investigating the incident. A call seeking comment from that office wasn’t immediately returned.
This story was republished with permission from The Lewiston Tribune.