Shortly after Charlotte Greenfield arrived home from visiting her husband at the hospital, she said she heard a popping sound coming from the garage. At first, she said, she thought it was a woodpecker, but when she opened the garage door she was faced with plumes of black smoke.
Greenfield closed the garage door and slipped out of the house. Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue got to her address in the Windward Palm Beach community at 6:18 p.m., said Capt. Don Delucia. The fire was out 20 minutes later, he said.
Fire investigators pointed to the garage door opener as the source of the fire. The Greenfields' two cars were destroyed and the garage sustained severe damage. Damage was estimated at $60,000, Delucia said.
"I feel numb. I'm nervous," Greenfield told firefighters while sitting in a patio chair in a neighbor's driveway and clutching her cane.
Greenfield has lived in the community for 13 years and had planned to stay with a neighbor Saturday night. Neighbors came to her house on Leeway Lane to offer support.
"I'm so pleased she got out and didn't try to save anything. She was very brave," said Denise Demesticha, of Orlando, who was helping her parents move.
