Alert neighbour earns praise for preventing serious house fire

If not for a fast-acting neighbour, a fire at a Mountainview Rd. S. home Wednesday morning (Oct. 18) could have ended in disaster. A spokesperson for Halton Hills Fire Protection and Prevention Services said the smoke alarms in the home weren't working because the homeowner had removed the batteries the previous night as they were activating while she was cooking. At about 7:51 a.m. a neighbour smelled smoke and noticed smoke coming from the second floor window of the home. He banged on the door to awaken the residents of the home while his wife called the fire department. The residents of the home and the neighbour rushed up to the second floor through the smoke to extinguish the fire that was contained to the mattress and bedding in one of the rooms. A resident of the house returned home from work later and told the firefighters that she had lit a cigarette in the room, forgot about it, and went to work. There was no significant damage to the home.