Mary Gerner felt sheer terror arriving at Logan Health Medical Center on New Year’s Eve.  

The man she’d known since childhood, who once brimmed with positive energy and loved to crack a good dad joke, was barely recognizable as he lay unconscious in a hospital bed. Deep burns blistered 50-year-old Aaron Walker’s swollen body, scarring his head, face, arms, hands and legs. Tubes protruded from his throat, feeding oxygen into charred lungs.  

“I've loved Aaron my whole life,” Gerner said. “He was my very first boyfriend.” 

Gerner said goodbye to her boyfriend of the past five years for the last time at 11:10 a.m. on Jan. 11. Despite life-saving efforts by medical staff at the University of Utah Health Burn Center in Salt Lake City, Walker succumbed to his injuries.  

It’s been nearly two weeks since the 911 calls came in just after 9 p.m., Dec. 30 reporting a structure fire off Helena Flats Road, southeast of Glacier Park International Airport. The conflagration, visible to motorists on U.S. 2., engulfed a lumbermill owned by Montana Timberline Firewood Company, where Walker lived and worked.  

Firefighters from more than a dozen departments worked overnight to quell the flames, and the blaze was 100% contained by early afternoon the following day. The cause remains under investigation.  

Walker, who lived in an RV on the property of the lumbermill, was found unconscious in the snow that night, Gerner said. His home and car were destroyed in the flames, and his calico cat, Tokers, was nowhere to be seen. Gerner suspects the cat died in the fire.  

“She's not one to wander far,” Gerner said. “She probably got scared and crawled up somewhere, I'm assuming, and just, you know, perished.” 

Gerner didn’t learn about the fire until the following morning, when she woke up at 5:30 a.m. on New Year’s Eve for her shift at The Cat’s Meow & Hound’s Hideaway. She’d stayed the night at her daughter’s house and her son-in-law, Tristan Knopp, was the one who broke the news.  

“My son-in-law said, ‘Mary, did you hear about the fire?’” Gerner recalled. “I said, ‘No, I didn't.’ And then that's when I rushed out to the warehouse.” 

When she arrived, authorities told her Walker had already been taken to the hospital. Gerner got back in her car and drove to the medical facility, where doctors were arranging for him to be life-flighted to a specialized burn treatment center in Salt Lake City.  

"I went home and I packed,” Gerner said. “And then I hopped a plane.” 

Arriving in the city later that afternoon, Gerner dropped her belongings off at the hotel before she navigated the bus system to the University of Utah Health Burn Center.  

“He was a lot more swollen by the time I saw him again,” she said.  

Doctors wrapped his head, limbs, hands and feet in bandages, and kept him under heavy sedation. Walker’s lungs sustained significant damage, and the ventilator connected to a breathing tube was amped up to 100% oxygen.  

She spent most of the day by his bedside, taking an occasional nap.  

“I want to snuggle up with him in his bed,” Gerner told the Inter Lake days before he died. “But with all those wires and his burns, I can't, so I have to just lay on the couch next to him.” 

GERNER WAS 12 years old, wandering through a wooded area behind her neighborhood in Washington when she first came across 14-year-old Walker.  

“It was kind of like love at first sight,” Gerner said. “But then his family moved away.” 

They kept in touch over the years, but rarely saw each other. Eight years ago, Gerner visited Walker in Tennessee, where he and his mother relocated after losing their New Orleans home to Hurricane Katrina. It was the first time she’d seen him since she was 20 — and they fell in love all over again.  

“We knew that we were going to spend the rest of our life together,” Gerner said. 

His positive, outgoing personality and passion for the outdoors made him easy to love, she said. Walker was the type of guy who gave the shirt off his back to help someone in need.  

“He gets along with just about everyone, and he always tries his hardest at everything,” Gerner said. 

Walker and his mother moved back to Northwest Montana in 2020, so he and Gerner could reunite, but his mom died a month after the move. He kept his mother’s ashes, planning to take them to Washington and spread them next to his father’s.  

But the ashes, like everything else, were lost in the flames.  

SINCE JAN. 1, $14,030 has been raised through an online fundraising site, GoFundMe, set up by Gerner’s daughter, Elaina Knopp. The outpouring of community support has been overwhelming, Gerner said.  

“I read him everybody's prayers to him every day,” Gerner said. “I feel very grateful for the community we come from and how lovely people are ... I feel the love.” 

California Hot Wood, the company that owns Montana Timberline Firewood Company, sent Gerner a check to cover her travel and hotel expenses. The company also was working to set up a trailer on the lumber site to replace the home Walker lost.  

“They have all been very supportive,” Gerner said. 

Walker’s boss, Plant Manager Nic Bedwell, received texts from Gerner daily.  

“It's been tremendous. Those daily updates have been incredible,” Bedwell told the Inter Lake last week.  

His phone has blown up with calls and texts from current and past lumbermill employees, all asking about Walker since the night of the fire. Bedwell started a group chat to pass along updates with the whole crew, including management back in California.  

He described Walker as an eager employee who loved his job and the company he worked for. Walker once wrote a letter to management in Lodi, California, thanking them for being a great company, Bedwell said.  

“He’s just a good guy,” Bedwell said. “He has a good heart.” 

Bedwell had been planning to fly out to Utah as soon as Walker woke up and let him know there’s an entire community rallying for his full recovery.  

Walker’s condition initially appeared to be improving.  

Doctors reduced his oxygen support to 75% on Jan. 7, a good sign that his lungs were healing. Medical staff said his condition should be stable enough for skin graft surgery, which was scheduled for Jan. 8. The surgery initially went well, Gerner told the Inter Lake last week.  

But then came the “dreaded call.” 

“He has not responded well to surgery,” Gerner told the Inter Lake on Friday afternoon. “His organs are starting to shut down. His kidneys are shutting down.” 

Medical staff put him on dialysis, but his white blood cell count was escalating, according to an update posted on GoFundMe. Blood thinners used to treat a blood clot in his leg Saturday night led to internal bleeding, and the dialysis machine couldn’t keep up.  

“Given the severity of his condition and lack of response to treatment, the medical team made the decision to remove life-sustaining tubes and transition to comfort care so that he could pass peacefully,” said a post on GoFundMe. “[Gerner] was with him and held his hand.” 

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

    Aaron Walker poses on a piece of driftwood. (Courtesy of Mary Gerner)
  

    Aaron Walker, left, and Mary Gerner, right, pose for a selfie. (Courtesy of Mary Gerner)
  

    Mary Gerner, left, leans for a kiss from her boyfriend, Aaron Walker. (Courtesy of Mary Gerner)