BISMARCK, N.D. — A South African man who died as a result of a North Dakota forest fire last weekend planned to return to his wife in a few weeks in time for the birth of their first child.
Nicolaas van Eeden, 26, died Saturday of smoke inhalation after driving home to Tioga when the smoke became too much, his wife Anke told The Associated Press. It’s unclear exactly what happened, but the trooper found him alive and able to walk. However, he died shortly after arriving in Williston by ambulance, she said.
Van Eeden was one of two people killed as a result of weekend wildfires, blazes in scattered areas of western North Dakota that injured several other people and led to the evacuation of more than 100 others.
“He was just a wonderful person,” Anke van Eeden said of her husband. “And he absolutely adored everyone around him and cared for everyone, and I think the only thing that kept him going was the fact that he was so excited to meet his little girl.”
The couple’s daughter is expected in November. Anke heard of Nicolaas’ death shortly after her baby shower. They got married in February and have been together for three and a half years. They met through mutual friends.
They came together to North Dakota at the end of April. Nicholas did general agricultural work on a ranch in the Tioga area on a farm worker visa program “Just to give us a financial boost so we can start our lives,” Anke said.
He was coming home in three weeks for the birth of their baby. Earlier this year, 31-year-old Anke quit her job to go to North Dakota with Nicolaas, the family’s breadwinner. She returned to George, South Africa in early August.
The couple’s last conversation was a routine phone call to let her know he was driving home, she said.
Messages, prayers and condolences from North Dakota have reached her on the other side of the world, she said — a response that was “more than I ever thought possible.” The Bank of Tioga has an account for donations for the van Eeden family.
Nicholas was a great worker who put a lot of heart into everything he did, said Brittany Wolla, whose family he worked for two summers on their farm and ranch, doing everything from driving a combine to spreading manure and working with cows, Wolla said.
“Anything we asked of him, he did, and if he didn’t know how to do it, he was very willing to learn” — even watching YouTube videos when he couldn’t figure it out on his own, she said .
The snow and cold weather in North Dakota were a shock to him — and so was driving on the right side of the road — but Wolla said her family has never had farm workers with an excellent work ethic like the South Africans who employed them, who became part of their family.
The van Eeden family will hold a ceremony for Nicolaas in the coming days. His ashes won’t come home until after his daughter is born.
Authorities on Tuesday confirmed the death of a second person, 47-year-old Edgar Coppersmith, of Tioga, in connection with the fires in Williams County.
Detective Dan Ward said Coppersmith was taken to Denver because of his injuries. He died there, but Ward said he did not know when or how he was injured.
Coppersmith and Van Eeden were injured in separate incidents, Ward said. Six other people were injured as a result of the fires in the province.
The fires were among six major wildfires over the weekend in scattered areas of western North Dakota, where dry conditions and wind gusts of nearly 80 mph (129 km per hour) fanned the flames. Officials believe downed power lines caused at least some of the fires.
Firefighters had a better handle on two other major wildfires in western North Dakota on Tuesday.
As of 3:52 p.m. Tuesday, the 28,434-acre (11,507-hectare) Elkhorn Fire near Grassy Butte was 50% contained, and the 11,746-acre (4,753-hectare) Bear Den Fire near Mandaree was 30% contained, according to the state Department of Emergency Services.
No injuries have been reported in connection with the two fires. Two houses and numerous outbuildings have been lost. Both fires are burning in the rugged Badlands region of North Dakota’s oil patch.
The North Dakota Forest Service recorded 33 reported fires over the weekend, covering 49,180 acres.
That figure does not include the major fires in the Ray, Tioga and Alamo areas that have been combined into one. The burn size of that fire is estimated at 88,934 acres, but there may be spots in that area that were not burning, a department spokesperson said. That fire is 99% under control. Flare-ups are still a problem.
More than 100 people were evacuated from their homes in the Arnegard and Keene areas on Saturday due to fires.
Livestock losses from the fires were not immediately clear. Hundreds of electricity poles were damaged. Portions of two highways temporarily closed.
Officials expect the fire danger to continue this fall.