Lovell man pulls woman from burning house

Sometimes it’s fortunate to live next to a wrestling coach. Just ask Merrianne Hall, formerly Merrianne Sponsel.

Former longtime Lovell and Rocky Mountain head wrestling coach Daniel Robertson was asleep on his couch in the early morning hours of Sunday, Aug. 16, having nodded off while playing a video game, when his wife, Amanda, woke him up.

The couple lives in the home Daniel grew up in at 843 Shoshone in Lovell, renting from Daniel’s mother, Brenda Simmons, while the Robertsons’ new home is being built. Hall lives next door to the north at 827 Shoshone.

Amanda Robertson heard glass breaking and could see a fire breaking out next door at Hall’s house. She woke up Daniel, and he rushed outside, calling 911. It was 2:35 a.m., and the emergency page read “House on fire. Male could hear a female yelling from inside the house.”

“I threw on some shoes and went out,” Daniel Robertson said. “I could hear her yelling.”

He found Hall partly hanging out a window, essentially stuck partway out.

“It’s kind of a small window (five feet off the ground), and she was fighting the windowsill trying to get out,” Robertson said. “She was hanging out yelling ‘Help me!’ Both of her arms were out, but she couldn’t get the rest of the way out.”

Robertson had to knock down a street-facing fence to get to Hall, and when he reached her, he said he held the window frame up with one hand while he pulled her with the other. He was successful.

“It was like an underhook and a hip toss,” he said, using wrestling terminology. “Good thing I was a wrestling coach. I slung her over my back the best I could.”

Hall suffered burns to her legs and back, and she suffered a hard fall after emerging from the window, Robertson said. He coaxed her toward the front of the house – the fire burning the rear portion of the house – quickly assisted by son Joaquin Scheeler.

“I felt really bad for her,” he said, noting that Hall was in a lot of pain. She was soon transported to North Big Horn Hospital for treatment.

Though many would call Robertson a hero, he said he just did what had to be done.

“It doesn’t feel like much,” he said. “I’m glad I could help. I just pulled a lady out of a window.”

The fire response

Lovell fire chief Zach Blain said when the Lovell Volunteer Fire Dept. reached the house, firemen found the backyard on fire and the rear portion of the house ablaze, fire  coming out the windows of a small enclosed porch and the home’s rear room.

“When I got there the Robertsons had helped her get out a window and had her in the front yard,” Blain said, noting that the initial call said someone was in the house but seeing Hall safe, they were able to focus on fire suppression.

Firemen knocked down the fire in the backyard, then sprayed through a window into the rear of the house, a house filled with heaps of rubbish, to dowse the flames inside.

“The fire was in the only room where she could access an exit, so she had to go out a bedroom window. It (the rubbish) really affected our ability to efficiently put out the fire.

Blain said fire trucks were on scene about two hours and returned around 1:30 p.m. Sunday to put out a small flareup.

A state fire marshal arrived around 8:30 a.m., and Blain said the fire was determined to be accidental, likely caused by an electrical problem in an extension cord.

Blain said Hall suffered from second and third degree burns and smoke inhalation and was transported to the hospital “in pretty rough shape.”

He said he would like to thank the Robertsons for their actions, noting, “If they hadn’t gotten her out, she wouldn’t have survived,” and adding that when Hall broke open the window, it pulled the fire toward the window and, thus, toward her.

Help for Hall

Lisa Gilbert, a good friend of Merrianne Hall, said Hall has basically been left with nothing, and she is hoping someone or some organization will step forward to conduct some fundraising and/or collect donations. Gilbert can be reached at 307-250-2454.

Tuesday crash

The fire department also responded to a crash near Byron early Tuesday morning. The department was dispatched at 4:42 a.m. to mile marker 40 on U.S. 14A about a mile northeast of Byron where a car had collided with a loose calf.

Blain said a Buick driven by Mandy Joy was heading westbound and slowed when she saw some cows to the side of the road but didn’t see a black calf in her lane of travel until it was too late. She struck the calf with the right front of her car, and numerous airbags deployed, protecting her from harm.

“She kept it in her lane, and the seat belt and airbags protected her,” Blain said.