A Jefferson County family says they're lucky to be alive and credits a smoke detector with saving their lives.
The local family was asleep in their beds when a fire started in their home off of State Route 213, in Knoxville. The family says it was four o'clock Sunday morning when the sound of their smoke detectors woke them up. Assistant Chief Jessy Reynolds of the Knoxville Fire Department said, "Fortunately took good advice and had one close to every bedroom and one in the kitchen."
The family which included a four year old boy and his dog, quickly evacuated the home and called 9-1-1. Fire fighters rushed to the scene but the fire destroyed nearly everything the family owned.
The woman who lives inside says she's convinced she and her family would have been trapped in the home had it not been for the smoke detectors. A real life scenario local fire fighters encounter too often. Reynolds said, "The smoke detectors are a problem more often than people believe because if you have them you don't check them."
Three fire companies battled the blaze using thermal imaging heat detectors to track the fire as it spread through the roof. Investigators are calling the fire accidental and say it appears the fire started in the kitchen. The exact cause is not yet known.
The family did manage to get out of the home unharmed. Right now they are staying with family until they can find a new place to live.
Kelly Bryan NEWS9
Copyright 2006 by . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
