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Photos: Willow firefighter gets his sled dogs back

WILLOW -- Cecily Boeve urged the spooked sled dog past the wreckage of Leo Lashock's home Thursday morning.

Lashock is a captain with the Willow Fire Department and a recreational dog musher. The house he lives in burned down Sunday while he was fighting the Sockeye wildfire as it rapidly spread in the Susitna Valley.

The Boeves, his next-door neighbors, evacuated from the fire but took care of Lashock's team until Thursday.

Then they brought 17 dogs home.

"I know, I know," the 20-year-old Boeve crooned as she guided the slender husky past the crumpled metal roof, the blackened mattress spring, the stink of char and ruin. "This is scary. This isn't home, is it?"

The house was gone. But the dog yard survived. The huskies wagged their tails and sniffed unburned wooden dog boxes.

Read more: Starting over: Willow firefighter who lost home to Sockeye blaze gets his dogs back

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