A strange popping sound startled Allyson Kuechmann awake at 3 a.m. 

She dashed to her bedroom window and screamed at her husband, Jim, to wake up. Their garage was ablaze.  

Her phone was in her purse, downstairs in the kitchen. As she fled down the steps, Kuechmann shouted to wake up the rest of her family. Her 11-year-old grandson, Tristin, slept in the downstairs bedroom and her 40-year-old son, Anthony, and 65-year-old brother, Pat, slept in the living room.  

“They all heard me. My neighbor heard me,” Kuechmann recalled.  

There wasn’t time to save anything as panicked family members fled outside to safety in the freezing night air. Had she waited even five minutes, Kuechmann speculated she and her husband would have been trapped in their third-story bedroom.  

“I ran out of the house with no shoes, and my husband ran out of the house with no shoes, no coat, no nothing,” Kuechmann said. “My grandson went out with just his underwear and a blanket.” 

Responders arrived on scene within minutes of a call to 9-1-1. Fire personnel brought a water tanker to douse the flames, but its store was soon depleted as the inferno raged on.  

“I had all these firefighters standing in my driveway watching my house burn down,” Kuechmann said. “That was hard.” 

She watched as the roof crumbled to the ground, with her parakeets and hamster trapped in her bedroom. One of her dogs died in the flames, and Kuechmann is hopeful her cat made it out through an open door.  

Photo albums, Nancy Drew books, thousands of expensive music sheets and other irreplaceable mementos all went up in flames. Investigators believe the Feb. 3 fire that destroyed the Helena Flats home was sparked by faulty wiring, Kuechmann told the Inter Lake last week.  

FOR OVER 25 years, Kuechmann has directed the Valley Voices Community Choir since its inception in 2000. More than a dozen choir members sat in the living room of her temporary residence on Tuesday afternoon, where the family is now staying.  

“[The American Red Cross] asked what we needed, if we needed housing, or if we needed clothes. And I said, ‘I have a choir that's amazing,’” Kuechmann said.  

Her family used money from the Red Cross to pay for a single room at the Holiday Inn Express. Behind the scenes, choir members immediately got to work to help their beloved director. Jim Olson, one of the members, has a daughter who is well-connected in the real estate community.  

“She called me and she said, ‘We have to get you out of there,’” Kuechmann said. “I said, ‘Well, I don't know how. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go.’ She says, 'Well, we'll find a place.’” 

After six days of staying in a cramped hotel room, Kuechmann and her husband found themselves signing a one-year lease to move into their new space. Within 24 hours, the temporary home was furnished with TVs, computers, a printer, rugs, cookware, chairs and a couch.  

More boxes of donated belongings filled the attached garage, including extra furniture. All of it was donated by members of the Valley Voices Community Choir.  

“They kept showing up all afternoon and even today and just bringing things to furnish my home,” Kuechmann said Tuesday. “I’m just so overwhelmed.” 

The feeling was one of exuberance and joy stepping into the house, with empty boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts sitting on the counter. Choir members ran around to organize the space, before taking a break to sing “Celebrate Life” in practiced harmony.  

A stuffed white bear with a pink bow sat on a coffee table, a gift to Kuechmann by the choir’s president, Lauren Davis. Each choir member had taken turns hugging the bear during practice the previous night.  

“This choir is so supportive and so loving,” Kuechmann said. “And I'm just so, so overwhelmed and so blessed to have them in my life.” 

THE ENSEMBLE has swelled to more than 80 members since it began, with singers ranging in age from young teenagers to 90 years old. They’ve been invited to sing at Carnegie Hall, for the Montana State Legislature, the historic Conrad Mansion and nursing homes across the Flathead Valley.  

Their musical repertoire includes Broadway numbers, pop songs, patriotic music and religious and secular pieces. No auditions or previous musical experience is required to join the group – everyone and anyone with a desire to perform is encouraged to participate. 

Kuechmann, who studied voice and chorale directing at the University of Southern California and Moorpark College and performed in three operas, prides in her ability to teach anyone to sing. She and her husband moved back to Montana in 1996, first living with his parents in Missoula before finding their own place in Kalispell that same year. She started out directing a homeschool choir before forming the Valley Voices Community Choir four years later.  

A GoFundMe was launched Tuesday afternoon to raise money for the Kuechmanns. Within a day, nearly $3,500 has been raised through the online platform. Donations are also accepted via check, cash or Zelle, as well.  

For more information on how to donate, visit tinyurl.com/kuechmann-gofundme.  

Reporter Hannah Shields can be reached at 758-4439 or [email protected].  

    An unburned statue of the Virgin Mary sits outside the Kuechmann residence near Helena Flats on Tuesday, Feb. 10, after a fire at the home on Feb. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Jim Kuechmann looks over his family's residence near Helena Flats on Tuesday, Feb. 10, after a fire at the home on Feb. 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    The Kuechmann's house near Helena Flatts before it was destroyed in a fire on Feb. 3. (Courtesy of Lolo Lindquist)