Fire officials are crediting working smoke alarms for saving a child in a house fire in Millbrook, Ont., on Friday night.
Around 6:30 p.m., crews from Otonabee South Monaghan and Cavan Monaghan townships were called to a residential fire on Deyell Line, just south of Millbrook, which is about 20 kilometres southwest of Peterborough.
Cavan Monaghan fire chief Bill Balfour says a boy was on the first floor of the home playing a video game with headphones on and didn’t hear the basement smoke alarm ringing.
However, Balfour says the boy’s father, who was working in the garage at the time, heard the alarm and rushed inside to get his son out of the home.
“Everyone made it out safely,” Balfour said. “Had there not been an alarm, that might not have happened.”
Crews found the basement engulfed in flames when they arrived, Balfour said. But firefighters were able to contain the fire to the basement.
The cause of the fire and a damage estimate are not yet known.