Noel Alves was sitting in her easy chair about 8:30 a.m. Monday, April 13, drinking her usual morning coffee when she heard a couple of bangs and then noticed what seemed to be eerie shadows like dark ghosts crossing her front lawn.

“I thought ‘that’s strange,’ but then thought it was probably just people shooting off guns around here, because that’s what they do,” said the retired 70 year old. “But then the dogs were barking, and I happened to look out of the window and our motorhome was engulfed in flames.”

Alves’ husband, Moises, was still asleep — but only until Noel could shake him awake in terrified panic. They both ran out of their home on Dobiash Lane S.E. — off of Vail Road about seven miles southeast of Yelm — to stare in disbelief at the scene before them.

Their 37-foot, 2000 Fleetwood Discovery Class A diesel motorhome would continue to burn for about 30 minutes within 10 feet of the Alves’ attached garage before three fire trucks arrived to extinguish the flames, the couple estimated.

By then, the Fleetwood was a black skeleton, burned to a crisp — the 65,000 miles of roadway under its tires to be its last.

“A lot of wonderful memories were made in that motorhome, but now it’s just sorrow,” said Moises. “This was our second home in many ways, and we traveled all over the United States in it. It wasn’t even broken in, yet.”

But early that morning as they waited for the fire crews to arrive, it was their first home that most concerned the couple. 

As the fire raged, Moises filled a hose with water from the couple’s drinking well and doused the front of his garage, thereby combating the intense heat from the burning motorhome and limiting damage to the house. As it turned out, their garage door would have to be resealed and painted as would the facia and siding around it — but the house itself was unscathed.

The Alves believe a propane tank attached to their motorhome the couple used for heating and cooking somehow began leaking and sparked an electrical fire that soon turned into an inferno.

The saving grace, Noel said, was that the fire didn’t occur in the middle of the night while they were sleeping.

Added Moises, 72, weeping for a moment as he imagined that possibility: “The fire would have engulfed the house, and we might have died. The Lord’s mercy saved us.”

And even though Moises calls the fire an “immense loss,” the Alves hope to have another motorhome in their driveway in a couple of months — depending on their insurance settlement. They’re not expecting anything too fancy, though, Moises said — considering motorhomes like the Fleetwood these days cost from around $115,000 to more than $300,000. 

“We’ll try to get something comparable, but it won’t be new,” he said.