Don Davis RELATED STORY: Davis calls for fire-rescue support Advertisement

In just four weeks Donald Davis, 64, and his wife were planning on celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in the new, "unusual" Victorian home they were building in Pahrump when a spark ended the dream in a 10 mph wind.

A self-described "energy nut" who drives a Toyota Prius hybrid, Davis said he was building an energy efficient home for the good of the environment and to save on his electricity bills.

"My wife and I decided to move out of Vegas and design our own home in Pahrump," said the 13-year Las Vegas resident. His new retirement home would have walls insulated with bales of straw and double-faced, R-80-rated Styrofoam insulation in the outside walls. An under-the-floor air-conditioning-and-heating system would keep the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Davis and two friends from his church framed the house on his East Comanche Drive property off Homestead Road in south Pahrump. They did the carpentry, the plumbing and the electrical work. It was 90 percent done, except for the installation of three more sheets of steel siding and "a few little odds and ends," Davis said.

While Davis was away, a friend was working with an acetylene torch, soldering a fitting on some copper tubing.

It was 97 degrees out, and winds responsible for whipping up embers in a mesquite fire 14 miles away were keeping Pahrump Fire-Rescue busy.

The well-insulated house, ironically, worked too well -- but at cross-purposes to the intentions of the friend who was "capping off" the copper tubing with the torch. The double-insulation reflected the flame's heat so that the unfinished wall's exposed straw bales ignited.

The friend doused the flame with water from a nearby water bottle and then, when it spread among the bales of straw, went onto the roof with a hose. "It gained on him, and then started to really get going," said Davis.

Within 20 minutes the house was consumed -- three bedrooms, two baths, a walk-in pantry, laundry room, sewing room, front and back porches, a two-car garage and three cupolas on the roof with remote-controllable windows for ventilation.

The fire department was called. "It took them a little while to get there," said Davis. That was because firefighters were just then finishing up with the mesquite fire north of Gamebird Road.

When firefighters did arrive, there was not much they could do. The house was lost, as was the RV Davis and his wife were living in. He suffered several second and third-degree burns himself, he said.

Davis had just closed on the sale of his old house in Vegas two weeks earlier, and all his and his wife's belongings -- furniture, clothes, valuables -- were already moved into their new home, adding fuel to the fire.

Interviewed after the fire, Davis was impassive. "The Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust," he said. "So I say, 'Thank you, Jesus.' It also says all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purposes."

But he returned to his new reality. "I don't yet know what the 'good' is," he said. "There was nothing left over three foot high above the slab.

"My wife and I and our two dogs are healthy and happy, but we're homeless."

Davis has help coming from his church in Las Vegas, where he has been a member for the past 21 years. His boss of 13 years has also offered him a place to stay, and a neighbor in Pahrump has offered a place as well.

But, despite Davis' wealth of friends, he has sustained a huge loss. A fund has been set up in Pahrump for the Davises, too, organized by KPVT, Channel 30/62.

"My intent is to rebuild at this point," Davis said. "But not with straw. Maybe concrete ... I watched the realization of my dreams go up in smoke, but I have not lost my dreams."

Davis added, "I watched the sun come up at 4:30 yesterday morning and by 3:30 that afternoon I watched the house go up in smoke. There is nothing salvageable. So I don't worry about nothing.

"One way or another, Donald Davis is not going to be put down by this, I will rebuild."