O’FALLON, IL (KTVI)-A family barely escapes a fire early Friday morning at their O`Fallon, Illinois home. Flames gutted the house; the family is grateful that they are still alive.
“It was terrifying. You never know what that’s like until you’re in the situation,” said Scott Dunn, who lives at the home on Agnes Drive with his wife and their three kids.
The children are ages 15, 11 and just 15 months old.
Scott says he was sleeping on a couch in the upstairs living room around 1:30am when a smoke detector going off woke him up. He immediately saw smoke and fire and knew he had to act fast to save his family.
“The smoke started filling the room and I dropped to my knees and I got disoriented. I was actually lost in the dining room pushing the table and the chair all around trying to figure out where in the heck I was in the house. But at that point I realized I couldn’t find them cause I didn`t know where I was. I started yelling “Fire, fire, fire’ at the top of my lungs,” explained Scott.
Scott’s wife Rebecca and their kids were sleeping in their rooms. Fortunately, Rebecca heard Scott yelling. She grabbed the baby.
Then Scott and Rebecca got the other two kids and everyone ran out the front door.
“You only have a split second to look at these children and say can I get them out? And we did, so it’s good that we got the kids out. It’s good,” said Rebecca with tears in her eyes.
O’Fallon’s Fire Chief, Brent Saunders, says fire was shooting from the home when they got there.
It took crews about half an hour to get the fire under control.
‘Flames coming out the front door, the front windows, and again through the roof, and the back door at the deck,” explained Saunders.
Rebecca lived in this same home when she was a kid, making the fire even tougher to take. Still she and Scott realize it all could have been much worse.
“Unfortunately, we’re in a situation where we have to rebuild. But in the same token, we’re so thankful that we still have each other,” said Scott.
Authorities say the fire started in the room where Scott was sleeping and was likely the result of an electrical issue.
Investigators say there is nothing suspicious about the fire but the state fire marshal was still called in because of the large monetary loss.
The entire family went to the hospital to be checked out. All were fine.
