FARGO – The fire tore through the house and upended his family's life just before Christmas. But for Bruce Geske, finding the good in this misfortune hasn't been hard.
He can even see a silver lining in the severe burns that put his wife in the hospital.
"In the midst of things that we would have never chosen, there's incredible blessings and little miracles that keep happening almost on a daily basis," the 57-year-old said.
Since the fire, Geske and his family have experienced a flood of generosity: donated meals, clothes, furniture and more than $29,000 in cash raised through a GoFundMe website. "The people of Fargo have been just unbelievably fantastic in their embracing us as a family," he said.
Geske, a Fargo native, and his wife, Nit, are Christian missionaries who've raised their eight children, ages 6 to 22, in Thailand. Over the summer, the family came here for an extended visit so the kids could have time with Geske's parents, who are in their late 80s.
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Geske's family was staying with his parents in their twinhome at 1408 5th St. N. in Fargo when the fire struck on Dec. 21. That morning, Geske left to drop off two of his kids at school, and when he returned less than 10 minutes later, smoke was billowing from the house.
Thinking it was just burning toast, Geske planned to go inside to deal with it. But when he tried to push the door open, the heat and smoke pushed back. "The fire was completely out of control," he said.
That's when his kids, who had safely escaped the fire, told him their mom was still inside. "I started trying to crawl in, and I couldn't," he said. "I started screaming for Nit."
His screams went unanswered, the door swung shut, and his attention shifted to ensuring all his kids were out of the house. "Then I heard a knocking on the door, and when I opened it again, then Nit came out," he said. "That was a miracle."
Geske said his 53-year-old wife was the last one to leave the home because she wanted to make sure all of her children were safe. When she got out, she was coughing up black smoke and had second-degree burns on her face, neck and hands.
In the weeks since, she's been recovering at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. Her burns have been healing well, including those on her hands, which required skin grafts, her husband said.
About a week after the fire, her doctors detected an ulcer that had worn a hole in her intestine - a potentially fatal diagnosis - and she underwent surgery to have it patched.
Geske doesn't know whether there's a link between the fire and his wife's ulcer, which could have been a pre-existing condition. But he's thankful the hole in her intestine was discovered. "That may be one of the hidden blessings that came out of the fire injuries," he said.
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If her health keeps improving, she may be able to leave the hospital by the end of the week, Geske said.
Fargo Fire Chief Steve Dirksen said investigators concluded that the blaze was started by combustible material stored too close to an electric baseboard heater in the basement.
The fire, which scorched the basement and spread upstairs, destroyed many of the belongings of Geske's parents. "They kind of lost 60 years of all of their things together," he said.
Displaced by the fire, Geske's family and his parents have been living at the Residence Inn, and they hope to move into a rental house soon.
Geske, his wife and children originally planned to return to Thailand on Jan. 2. But now they intend to stay in Fargo until the end of the school year so the kids can finish the semester.
Despite the fire's toll, Geske said he's happy his children have had a chance to see the kindness of his hometown. "They've experienced what the people of Fargo are like," he said. "It's a gift that's come out of this."
