A home in St. Thomas has been destroyed by an early morning fire, but thanks to a local real estate agent who was driving by, everyone escaped unharmed.
Murray Mugford says it was by chance that he slowed his car to a crawl right by the Wellington Street home on Friday morning.
“I was just kind of checking out the real estate around it and took a good look and it certainly looked unusual to me. Flames were starting to grab and they were getting bigger as I pulled over.”
The fire had started around 7:45 a.m. Mugford called 911, and while the fire department was just down the road, he says he knew he needed to take action.
“I headed to the back door and kind of nudged the door open, banged the door open and started yelling and screaming and telling everyone to get out of the house…I said, you know, ‘Move, move, move.’ And they finally clicked in that something really is seriously wrong here.”
There were six people in the home when the fire started, three adults and three children. Everyone was able to get out of the home safely.
The fire department were on scene quickly, but had to call in their full fleet of six trucks, 35 to 40 firefighters to contain the blaze.
Chief Fire Prevention Officer Bill Todd says “There seemed to be a fire on the front porch that had migrated into the walls and up into the attic area.”
And officials are commending Mugford for his actions “He saw the smoke so he went into the back of the residence to get people up and get them out of the house. So glad that he did.”
As for Mugford, he is quick to praise the actions of the fire department and says “I was meant to be in the right spot at the right time. And I don’t think that I’m a hero, I just did what I had to do.”
The cause of the fire and an estimate of the damage have yet to be determined.
