For the Love of Denton
Communities Rally around Denton after the Fire
By Gayle M. Irwin
Photography contributed
When residents of Denton, Montana, evacuated on Dec. 1, 2021, in the face of the raging West Wind Fire, no one knew what to expect when they returned. The inferno destroyed more than 20 homes, and many others were severely damaged. In the days and weeks that followed, love of community shone like a lighthouse beacon, and that radiance continues months later.
Above: Denton, Montana in 2013.
Below: Denton, Montana after a December 2021 fire ravaged the town.
Betty Brinkman and her husband, Ron, live on the family farm about 10 miles west of Denton near the tiny town of Coffee Creek. She remembers looking out her living room early that Wednesday morning, about 90 minutes after Ron responded to the Coffee Creek Volunteer Fire Department pager.
“I couldn’t believe what I saw,” Betty recalled. “The fire was so big, and I thought it was headed straight for Coffee Creek. I said aloud, ‘How are they going to put that out?’”
Tova Gerer and her family also noticed the fire to the west from their home just outside of Denton. “We went out and looked, and then I went and got my mom,” she said.
Her mother, Helen Lodman, lived in Denton. Her house was badly damaged in the fire and she’s now living with Tova. “I up and left quickly,” Helen said. “I grabbed some clothes and my medicines and left.”
Tova, who serves on the Denton Volunteer Ambulance Department, set up at Incident Command near the community park and school football field.
“Whenever structures are involved, the ambulance is required to standby,” she explained. “I was stationed with the ambulance from 2:30 p.m. on the first day until 7 p.m. the next night. I slept in my pickup next to the ambulance.”
She witnessed first-hand the response not only of her neighbors and friends, but also the community at large.
“People came together,” she said. “Being there at Incident Command and just watching the names on all the different fire trucks – they were from all over.” She remembered firefighters came from Lewistown, Geraldine and Geyser, as well as other small communities in and around Fergus County. She also recalled crews from other parts of Montana.
“Missoula, Bozeman, Helena – there were trucks from everywhere!” she said.
Rick Brinkman, one of Betty and Ron’s sons, also calls Denton home. He, too, noticed the fire during the early morning hours. He said he smelled smoke and drove to the Denton Fire Hall.
He had served on the town’s volunteer fire department many years earlier. His father was already on one of the fire trucks “and then the old truck came through and I hopped on,” Rick said.
While firefighters from the larger communities dealt with burning homes and other buildings, such as the grain elevators, Rick Brinkman and others set out to assist wherever needed. One of the first places Rick and his firefighting partner helped at was a shelter belt on a property near Denton. Rick said they fought to keep the fire at this location for almost five hours.
“I don’t know how that house didn’t go up, but it didn’t,” he recalled.
His brother, Lee, who lives in Stanford, helped in town. Rick believes Lee helped protect his home and some of his neighbors. “Lee said he was around my house and there were hot coals falling out of the sky,” Rick said. “That had to have been from the elevator.
Love and compassion poured upon the town like a refreshing rain.
“Community extends beyond the borders of a town or even county,” said Josh Webber, Opportunity Bank branch manager in Denton. “The towns all have different names, but it seems like we’re all one community in a situation like this.”
“There’s still sorrow—our community is never going to be the same again. But Denton has always been resilient—we’ve been hard hit a lot of times. But we get up and we go on; that’s just what Denton does. ”
The bank operates an account to which money can be donated. Funds began arriving as news about the West Wind Fire spread. People from throughout Montana gave.
“They just supported our little community during and in the aftermath,” Josh said. “Our state was here” Donations from other states poured in as well, including Wyoming, the Dakotas and Colorado, Josh said.
The Denton Lions Club also pitched in. Tova, a member of the club, said it called an emergency meeting, and within days, “everybody took somebody in the community to keep tabs on, make sure they’re doing OK.”
Stockman’s Bank also established an account, and Go Fund Me pages lit up the internet. The financial assistance continued, including two auctions that took place at the Central Montana Fairgrounds a few weeks later.
The Central Montana Foundation distributes the funds, Josh said. The disaster relief began after two fires in the county prior to the West Wind Fire consumed a total of about 38,000 acres. The West Wind Fire ravaged about 10,600 acres.
Denton’s annual Christmas Stroll, usually scheduled for the first Sunday in December, was postponed for a week. The event also changed location from the Town Hall to Denton School Gym, allowing for more vendors and attendees.
Denton Mayor Joel Barber, who owns the Shade Tree Café, couldn’t attend the Christmas Stroll due to work. However, he said he heard the 2021 event was “the busiest the community ever had.” The fire had occurred just 10 days earlier.
A primary reason the Stroll changed locations was the tremendous amount of material donations at the Town Hall—from food items and clothing to toiletries and pet food.
“The donations that came in were just mind-boggling, how much stuff and support showed up,” Joel said. “The Town Hall was packed wall to wall with tables of stuff for everybody – it was really amazing. What people don’t realize is that the women of Denton and the volunteers … when you get the amount of donations that we did, we had a group of women who worked tirelessly for three days, organizing, sorting, boxing. All this stuff is showing up in mass quantities, and it really took an effort from these town ladies to get it organized and disbursed.”
Other quiet volunteers came from the Red Cross, especially during the evacuation and days thereafter. In cooperation with the Lewistown Civic Center, the Red Cross of Montana and Idaho established a shelter for displaced residents the day the fire roared into Denton.
As clean-up efforts move forward this winter and spring, residents continue helping their friends and neighbors.
“The people of Denton are wonderful people,” said Helen. “They just pull together for everybody.”
Her daughter agreed. “There’s still sorrow—our community is never going to be the same again,” Tova said. “But Denton has always been resilient—we’ve been hard hit a lot of times. But we get up and we go on; that’s just what Denton does.”
