Smoke alarm saves two in morning fire

A Virginia Beach family is safe thanks to their alarm system. When a fire sparked inside the walls of a 3 story home on Ocean Font Avenue Friday morning, there were no visible flames, Battalion Chief John Harvey told WAVY.com.

The alarm system, equipped to notify emergency dispatchers, detected the fire and sounded alerted the family and dispatchers of the fire around 2:30am.

When crews got to the scene, the pulled out parts of the ceiling of the second floor to find the flames. They extinguished the fire quickly, leaving only moderate damage to the home, Harvey said.

Harvey pointed to an electrical short as the cause of the fire, but echoed the importance of having some sort of detection system for fires,  "At 2:30 in the morning, we could have had fatalities if the fire would have broke out and cut off evacuation routes for the people," he added.