Fla. Family Rescued From Early Morning House Fire

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- Firefighters weren't the only heroes Sunday when a family was rescued from their burning home on Wheeler Street.

Tracey Stanley, who was asleep at her parents' house next door, awoke to a call for help and ran into the smoke-filled home multiple times. She was able to guide a man outdoors.

Neighbors have identified the family as Richard and Laura Jones, their adult son Steven Mink, and his girlfriend, Hayley Stiller.

Stanley said Mink came and yelled for help at 3:27 a.m.

"Our dog heard him beat on the door," she said. "When a dog barks like that in the middle of the night, you get up."

Stanley and Mink ran to the back of his house, located on the corner of Wheeler Street and Waynel Circle.

"We ran into the house, and the house was literally filled with smoke," she said. "You could not see a foot in front of you. It was that bad."

Mink had told Stanley earlier he could hear his family members but didn't know which room they were in.

"Steven was hollering for them ... and there was no response," she said. "Nobody was saying anything back at that point in time."

Steven told her he had tried to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher, but it didn't work.

"He grabbed the back hose and started putting out the fire," Stanley said.

Stanley said he told her the fire had jumped from a loveseat to the drapes and "then into the rafter area."

While Mink busted out windows to get a better look inside the house, she ran to grab a flashlight from her mother, Stanley said.

On her way back across the yard, she saw Richard Jones just inside the home's en-closed garage.

"I grabbed Richard and told him he needed to move," Stanley said. "He was very disoriented and didn't want to move."

Within seconds they heard the fire engines' sirens and firefighters arrived and told them to move away from the house.

"The fire department went in and they brought Hayley out first and then they brought Laura out," Stanley said. "They were completely unconscious. They immediately started doing CPR on them."

Stanley said Richard Jones was severely burned.

"Rick was conscious and he was talking," she recalled. "He just didn't know what was going on. He was completely disoriented."

Stanley said she was impressed with how quickly firefighters arrived.

"The fire department did an amazing job," she said.

The state fire marshal's office is still investigating the cause of the fire. A spokesman there said they did not know the condition of the Joneses or Stiller.

Copyright 2012 - Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach

McClatchy-Tribune News Service