Family pets saved from Covington-area home fire

Thanks to an alert 6-year old child and fast acting Fire District 12 personnel, three dogs, two hamsters and a fish were saved from a kitchen fire that could have resulted in the loss of their King’s Forest home near Covington.

The fire arose from unattended food that had been left on top of the stove and inside the oven. The food caught fire at about 4:20 p.m. at 306 Robin Hood Drive. The boy noticed the smoke and alerted his parents immediately with FD 12 personnel on the scene in only three minutes.

The house was severely smoke-damaged, with fire damage mainly confined to the kitchen. Six units and 16 firefighters responded to the call and had the blaze under control in 30 minutes.

“I’m very proud of our team,” said FD12 Deputy Chief Stephen Krentel. “From our dispatchers to our suppression units, everyone worked to their maximum speed and capacity to minimize the damage from thisfire.”

Krentel also praised the child who first noticed the fire.

“We estimate that only a 2-minute delay would have resulted in much worse damage,” Krentel said. “Although the interior was heavily damaged, the house remains structurally sound. That would not have been the case if that little boy hadn’t alerted his parents to the fire.”