The Lakewood family that escaped yesterday’s early-morning fire shared with TLS details about the frightening incident.

“We would like to share what happened to our family last night in order to thank those who helped us and to remind others how vital working smoke detectors can be.

At around 4 am, I was awakened by the sound of smoke alarms coming from the first floor of our home. (We live in an older house, and the smoke detectors aren’t inter-connected from floor to floor.) Everyone was asleep on the second floor, and only  and my son and I woke up from the smoke alarms ringing.

I assumed it was a false-alarm but we went downstairs just to be sure. When I opened the door to the basement, we saw a lot of smoke and the fire smell was very strong. My son and I quickly ran back upstairs and woke up my wife and the rest of the children and I called 911. By that time, the smoke alarms upstairs started ringing, as the smoke was rising to the second floor.

B”H, we all got out of the house safely. Within minutes Lakewood police, led by Officer John Ganley pulled up. He first ascertained that all the residents were out of the house and accounted for. Lakewood fire department personnel were right behind him, with several units responding, as well as Lakewood EMS and First-aid.

The fire fighters quickly went in, and extinguished the fire. It was B”H a small fire that probably started from laundry near the water heater, which ignited the clothing. But the smoke was all over the house. Our 15 year-old son was complaining about trouble breathing and was taken to the hospital for observation with slight smoke inhalation.

The Fire Marshall commented that in his over  30 years of service, he’d received many similar calls and has seen many fires just like this one. But the ones without working smoke detectors had very different outcomes, sometimes resulting in fatalities.

Thank you LPD for all the officers who came and helped keep everyone calm. Special thanks to Officer Ganley, who went beyond the call of duty and went to the hospital to check on our son after everyone had left.

Thank you to all the members of the Lakewood Fire Department for their rapid response, for putting out the fire, and for being so friendly and professional –  even at 4am!

Thank you to our 15-year-old son (who was released from the hospital and is B”H doing fine) for changing the batteries to all the smoke detectors a couple of weeks ago, during Bein HaZmanim.

And most of All, thank You Hashem,  for always watching over us, “the Guardian of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Tehillim 122).

Hashem has many messengers and various ways of keeping us safe. Last night, He utilized LFD, LPD and our smoke detectors.

We implore EVERYONE to check and, if needed, replace batteries in your smoke detectors. Choose to do it when we change the clock or whenever works for you, but be sure to periodically check on them. It could save your life.”

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