Wanda Etzell removes wet socks and rests as members of the Valley City and rural fire and rescue crews use ponded flood waters to put out the fire that consumed Etzell’s rural Valley City home on Thursday. (Nikki Laine Zinke/VCTR) 

By Nikki Laine Zinke
Valley City Times-Record

Rural Valley City rancher Wanda Etzell’s prolonged flood fight ended in tragedy Thursday as her mobile home was lost to fire.
Etzell, who ranches about 7 miles northwest of Valley City on property that’s been in her family since about 1970, said she’d been preparing to move back into her single-wide mobile home after the swollen Sheyenne forced her out on April 12.
“I was in there yesterday and I pulled out everything that was wet and on the floor,” Etzell said early Thursday afternoon. “I opened the windows and  was ready to start carrying stuff out of the house. It was just about dry enough.”  
Etzell said she’d stored her “good stuff in Rubbermaid tubs” before the flooding, noting that “my clothes, my beautiful coat, they were high and dry.”
But they’re all gone now. “It’s toast,” Etzell said.
While Etzell was checking on the latest new calf yesterday around noon -- she has some 70-head with calves, plus yearlings and goats -- she saw smoke rising from her mobile home.
“I called 911,” Etzell said. “I had a fire extinguisher right by the door, but by the time I got my dog locked in the truck, the blazes were coming up through the roof, so I didn’t worry about the fire extinguisher anymore.”
Cass County Electric cut power to the muddy site yesterday while fire and rescue crews used portable pumps to pull ponded flood water for use in spraying down the blaze.
“At least they can draw with these pumps here and they can put on all the water they want,” said Barnes County Sheriff’s Deputy Dan Anderson.
“It’ll be a total loss,” he added.
Etzell said she’d just begun filing insurance and FEMA paperwork Wednesday in hopes of receiving compensation for her flood losses.
The cause of Thursday’s fire is not yet known.