A child home sick from school Tuesday in Gloucester, Massachusetts is telling firefighters that he was was alerted to danger by his house's smoke detector and managed to escape to safety.
Firefighters responded to 33 Grove Street just before 9:20 a.m. to find a visibly heavy fire spraying from the second and third floors of the three-story, two-family dwelling. Flames had stretched out and reached the neighboring house at 31 Grove Street, according to the fire department.
Residents of neighboring homes were evacuated by the Gloucester Police Department. Neighbors told authorities that they had not seen anyone fleeing the dwelling.
After a few minutes of fighting the fire from the outside, firefighters entered the first floor and began to search for possible victims.
No one was found inside, but one firefighter suffered non-life-threatening injuries while containing the blaze.
The child, who was asleep when the fire broke out, told firefighters that he was woken up by the blaring of the smoke detector and managed to escape to a neighbor's house unharmed.
"Smoke detectors likely saved the child's life," said the Gloucester Fire Department in a statement.
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The home was severely damaged as a result of the fire and is currently uninhabitable. The neighboring home at 31 Grove Street also sustained heat damage to its exterior, but residents were able to return to that home, said the Fire Department.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
