“They did the right thing — get out of the house, and call 911,” Clary said. “Don’t try to put it out yourself, don’t go back in. Get everybody out, and call 911.”
Even food for the party was left behind, he said: “Unfortunately, it was all sitting there in the living room. There was a big-old spread sitting all over the kitchen. I felt so bad for them.”
The fire caused a lot of damage in the attic. Smoke damage and harm to ceilings from the firefighting effort will displace the family a while. Damage to the home, which is about a year old, was not determined.
“You’ve got to be careful when you’re using wood, especially this time of year,” Clary said, noting it’s also important to have furnaces and fireplaces checked at the start of the cold season, when they haven’t been used for a while: “That’s when you tend to see a large amount of problems.”
It took about 30 minutes to snuff the fire, but firefighters remained for hours afterward.
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