Couple who lost their home in the Oregon Trail fire welcome first son

Oh, the stories they will tell their boy one day.

Brooke Linville and Dan Thurber shed two and a half years of sweat and tears on a Southeast Boise house they wanted to be their first child's home.

Then it burned to the ground with nine others in the Oregon Trail Fire on Aug. 25.

They lost nearly everything, including many things that held great sentimental value: the deck they built together by hand in 100-degree heat one summer; the vibrant green lawn that Thurber cultivated from nothing; the nursery they designed for their child.

The couple suffered more setbacks after the devastating fire, but they also have experienced once of the greatest joys of their lives: the birth of Kellen Duncan Thurber. The 7-pound, 13-ounce boy was born Saturday.

"It's taken all the sadness - all the sadness feels insignificant," said Thurber, who noted that he forgot about the fire while at the hospital waiting for his son to be born. "Of all the families (affected by the fire), we get this distraction. We get to focus on this incredible child."

The couple has tried hard to regain some normalcy over the past month.

They're renting a house that's a few minutes drive from the house they lost; they plan to start re-building at that site as soon as next week.

But the last couple of weeks have been hard. Linville's grandfather died.

Last week, a doctor put her on bed rest after her feet swelled and her blood pressure was found to be dangerously high. And, as Thurber watched his son being delivered Saturday after 12 hours of labor, he was horrified to see the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck.

The baby's lungs had to be cleared out, so it was 15 minutes after the delivery before Linville was able to hold Kellen.

"She was just like, 'Where's my baby? Where's my baby,' " Thurber said.

Kellen is healthy and doing well - he sleeps most of the day and is wide awake around 4:30 a.m. He has his mom's almond-shaped eyes and his dad's strong, pronounced chin.

"He got his overbite from me," Linville said.

"Nice job, honey," Thurber joked.

The couple say they picked the name Kellen more than a year ago; the choice had nothing to do with Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore.

Linville first ran across the name in a book about NFL football players - there have been at least three Kellens to play pro ball. The name made the final cut after she and Thurber went through 20,000 names in a baby name book. Kellen has Gaelic origins and means slender.

"We went through the entire name book, name by name," Linville said.

They narrowed it down by comparing their Top 10 lists.

Linville and Thurber still suffer from post-traumatic stress, including anxiety when they see fire trucks or hear fire alarms.

When she was in labor, Linville was worried that her dog was locked in the house and might not be able to get out if there was a fire.

On the night of the fire, Thurber ran into their home to rescue their beloved dog, Shade. In her blog, "Rising from the Ashes," Linville wrote that she has second thoughts about that decision. She and Thurber are haunted by "what-ifs."

The day after the fire, the couple found their cat, Tabby, near the ashes of their house. They say the cat that used to hide under the couch when guests were over is now extremely sociable.

The cat, which still wears a tag bearing the couple's Sweetwater Drive address, lounged happily on the couch and scampered playfully around the house Monday afternoon.

Monday night, Thurber and Linville planned to introduce their baby boy to their close friends, a neighbor couple who also lost their house in the Oregon Trail Fire.

And they are thinking about the future.

Thurber, who previously ran an eBay business in his home and studied IT management at Boise State, is going to learn to be a stay-at-home dad over the next six weeks.

Linville plans to return to teaching at Riverside Elementary School.

"I promised her that when the second one comes around, she can be the stay-at-home (parent)," Thurber said.

Katy Moeller: 377-6413