Neighbors save family of 5 from Kendall Park house fire
The fire broke out around 5:30 a.m. inside a home on Kingsley Road in Kendall Park.
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Two neighbors saved a family of five from a fire early Wednesday morning.
The fire broke out around 5:30 a.m. inside a home on Kingsley Road in Kendall Park. A father and his four children were inside sleeping at the time.
They were awakened by two neighbors who were banging on the doors and windows to let them know the house was on fire.
Santo Livio says he and a young woman were both out for morning walks when they noticed the fire.
“We both stopped, and she looks, and I looked. I said, ‘Is that a fire coming out of that house?’ She says, “It’s smoke, it’s got to be a fire,’” Livio says. “So she starts to run to the door and starts banging. I run over here and start hitting on the side of the house, the window.”
Livio says he ran home and called 911 while the woman woke up the family. He says that firefighters arrived just as the family walked out and the garage went up in flames.
Kendall Park fire officials say that the fire started in the garage. News 12 crews saw a freezer, refrigerator and battery-operated lawn mower inside. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
The home will need major renovations before the family is able to move back.
"It's not livable at this time. Their belonging were all salvageable because most of the fire was contained to the garage and to the attic area,” says Kendall Park Fire Chief Chris Perez.
Livio says the young woman who helped evacuate the family is a regular walker at 5 a.m., but he says he doesn't know her personally. He says that he was happy to help the family.
"I was happy to do that. Only in the sense that we are neighbors. We all say hello to each other, good morning. I wish everyone would do that,” he says.
Perez says that there are smoke detectors inside the home but that firefighters did not hear any when they arrived.
