continued from p.1 after calling 911 on a cellphone that was "luckily inside my wife's purse in the bedroom." The home phone was dead. Day said the outcome could have been deadly had he not awoken to the smell of smoke. And he knows better than anyone the consequences of a house fire. Day's father, Bert Day , a prominent Milton businessman, died in a 2007 Milton house fire. The 88-year-old was found dead in the hallway of his Steeles Avenue home, near Tremaine Road. At that time, Day speculated that his father hadn't escaped the fire because he was looking for his wife, who had died two weeks before. Day said waking to the smell of smoke seven years later in his family home, where he and his wife raised four children, was a shock. The couple had watched Olympics coverage before heading to bed around midnight that night. "The strange thing was that smoke woke me, not the smoke detectors going off -- and they were going off like great guns in the hallway outside the bedroom door (which was closed)," he said. "My wife is a light sleeper, but the smoke woke me up... she slept right through it. "I opened the door to see what was going on Firefighters rescue couple from second-storey balcony and heavier smoke was coming up the stairs," he said. "I knew we'd have to escape off the balcony, there was no way we could go down the stairs." As they huddled together on the balcony, they could see the fire on the other side of the house reflected in the spruce trees. The bedsheet Day tied to the balcony didn't reach the ground, so he tied a drape to it, while his wife stood shivering, trying to avoid the ice and snow on the upper balcony. While they waited for the fire department to arrive, they contemplated their options. Day said he considered climbing down the sheet and running to the nearby garage to get a ladder for his wife. They figured that would be a bad idea, especially barefoot. They decided to use the bedsheet as a last-ditch effort if fire forced them down before emergency crews arrived. "My wife said she'd wait for the fire department," he said. Fortunately, the MFD arrived quickly, he said, and they descended an aluminum ladder from the residence they've called home for more than 45 years. Taken by ambulance to Milton District Hospital, they were observed for smoke inhalation. It was only when they realized how much they smelled of smoke that they grasped how easily they could have perished in the blaze. "We reeked of smoke... everyone in that hospital knew we'd been in a fire," he said. "To smell like that, we must have been breathing smoke for a long time as it was seeping under the door. Whether I woke up or not made a difference whether we lived or died," he said. "It wasn't our turn." Firefighter Brent Kocher and his partner, who rescued the pair from the balcony with a 24-foot ladder, recalled the dramatic scene. "It was a textbook rescue... exactly how it should go," Kocher said. "When we arrived, we grabbed the ladder off the back of the truck and raised it to the second floor," he said, adding it's the first such rescue for him since he was recruited in 2002. "We then assisted them down, one at a time -- first her, then him." They were taken with police escort to hospital, Kocher noted. "Immediately after, my partner and I were directed by my captain to the side of the house where there was a (water) line set up for us. We went into the fully-involved (home) addition." The firefighter said he stepped into what was the family room, carefully placing one foot in see Cause on p.4 3 | Thursday, February 27, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com · ALL GAMES PLAYED IN OAKVILLE · PROGRAMS FOR KIDS AGED 3-17 BALL HOCKEY LEAGUES (AGES 7-17) $149.99 (until March 31) 2014 OAKVILLE MINOR BALL HOCKEY LEAGUE YOUTH BALL HOCKEY Includes jersey, shorts, socks $159.99 (after March 31) LEG HEALTH WEEK · Comfortable, Orthopedic Footwear · Custom Orthotics · Compression Garments · Body Braces · Women's Health Products · Body Support Products LEARN TO PLAY PROGRAM (AGES 3-6) $110.99 (until March 31) 114.99 (after March 31) Includes jersey Tired Aching Legs? Varicose Veins? Swollen Ankles? EG EL G FRE ENIN E SCR All Programs are offered on Sunday mornings/afternoons from April to late June. 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