GREENFIELD — All four residents and their pets made it out of a house in Greenfield late Monday night before the flames engulfing the garage overtook the home.
Firefighters responded to the blaze shortly before midnight.
John Moore, who lives in the 800 block of Dorothy Drive in the Copeland Farms neighborhood, said he was awakened by his house’s fire alarm.
“That pretty much saved our lives,” he said.
Moore’s son, son’s girlfriend and their baby daughter lived in the room above the garage.
They all met in the living room of the house, Moore continued. He said he opened the door to his garage, saw it was engulfed in flames and left with everyone, including his dog, out the house’s front door. He made a quick return for his cat, he added.
“Get everybody out,” he said was going through his mind. “That was pretty much it.”
Moore said he didn’t know what could have caused the fire.
James Roberts, chief of the Greenfield Fire Territory, said the house was fully engulfed upon firefighters arrival, and flames were threatening houses on both sides, which sustained some external damage.
“The first arriving engine was able to stop that before it extended into those homes,” Roberts said.
Roberts said the fire is under investigation. He added one vehicle was destroyed in the garage.
Firefighters attacked with water from multiple angles, including from a tower truck, as the fire ripped through the property. Flames also spread to a vehicle in the driveway, whose horn blasted continuously while it was consumed.
Alex Raymond, 17, lives with his family in the house directly to the east of Moore’s home. Raymond said he heard “two loud booms” around 11:45 p.m. and thought they may have come from a vehicle break-in. When he looked out a window, however, he didn’t notice anything strange. Shortly after that, he heard two more loud booms and looked outside once more.
“Their whole garage is engulfed in fire,” Raymond said.
Raymond then went to wake up the rest of his family, he said. He added when he went into one of his sisters’ rooms, he noticed the whole room was glowing orange from the flames outside.
Raymond said he was glad to see that the neighbors had gotten out.
At 1:45 a.m. Tuesday, light smoke continued to waft from the house’s charred exterior as firefighters remained on scene.
Fire departments from Buck Creek and Sugar Creek also responded.
