Veronica Musall couldn’t tell if she was dreaming. It was 4 a.m. Saturday, and an explosion suddenly woke her up. 

Her newlywed husband by her side, she decided to look out her bedroom window.

“I just saw an orange glow over everything,” she said. “And I just knew immediately something wasn’t right.”

There were two fires reported early Saturday morning, according to the Coeur d’Alene Police Department. 

At about 3:40 a.m., the first one was reported to have started in a 75-foot-by-75-foot area in the 6500 block of North Mineral Drive. 

At 4 a.m., in the 7600 block of North Wheatfield Drive — slightly more than a mile away from the first fire — Veronica’s husband, Matthew Change, was calling emergency services to report that the house next door, which was unoccupied, was on fire. 

Other neighbors started calling 911, too.

“We woke up at 4 a.m. and the house was completely engulfed in flames,” said Dalton Smith, a neighbor across the street. “Called the police, and right as I was calling, I see them show up.”

The couple, who just married each other a week prior to Saturday, soon heard a pounding at their front door. It was the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, saying, “You guys got to go immediately, there’s a fire.” 

With growing flames from their next-door neighbor’s house eventually jumping to their garage, Change and Musall had enough time to grab car keys and a purse. 

Just in the nick of time, Change moved his work truck and Musall her personal vehicle from their driveway to a safe distance away from the carnage. There was also a Jeep in their garage. A Coeur d’Alene Police officer also drove it safely away, Change said.

“We obviously were not expecting to deal with anything like this,” Change said. “It still doesn’t feel real.”

By 4:30 a.m., Coeur d’Alene Fire Department personnel had put out the entire fire. The house next door to the young couple’s house was completely destroyed. Theirs, however, survived, with damage to its side, roof and garage.

Meanwhile, other damage included bins, clothes, glassware, camping supplies and dishes. The young couple had just moved into the house in May and were still unpacking. The side of Musall’s car was also partly melted.

On Monday, Change and Musall walked through their living room. The A-frame ceiling above the door to the garage had giant holes made by the fire department. Bits of insulation were on the floor. Musall’s white bridal shoes, with burn marks on the tips, sat on the kitchen table.

According to the young couple, they are right now “air mattressing it” at Change’s parents’ house. Knowing that they’re personally OK, they also spoke about the 67,000 people displaced from the major Spokane wildfires.

“The people in Spokane … we couldn’t imagine going through something like that,” Musall said. “Losing your entire house and displacing your whole family.”

The two Saturday fires in Coeur d’Alene are currently being investigated as intentional arson. 

“There was speculation that the fire on Mineral Drive was a distraction for this one so they can light this house on fire,” Change said. 

Meanwhile, Change and Musall said they didn’t personally know their neighbor whose house was destroyed by fire. They did say, however, that the house, until recently, was occupied by people mainly in their 30s, “with three kids.” 

They added that they heard these neighbors, who were moving items out of their house intermittently the past few months, “hooting and hollering” Thursday night before leaving Friday.

“So, who knows if they accidentally left something behind and something started,” Change said.

Change and Musall said they intend to return to their house once it's repaired because “it’s a good neighborhood, and we’re surrounded by friends.”

“It’s going to be a rough few months,” Musall said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, but it could be worse.”

Musall also joked about the fire damaging her wedding heels. 

“They got a little dirty,” she said with a chuckle.

    A fire engulfs a house in the 7500 block of N. Wheatfield Drive in Coeur d'Alene on Saturday. The fire jumps to a neighboring house.