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Wednesday, January 13th, will be a day the Bardsley family will never forget. A fire started in or near the garage of their home on the 8000 block of Greene Ave around 5:00 p.m. the couple, along with their dog, escaped unharmed.

Neighbor Michelle Carrigan made the call to 911, and according to Communications Manager Scott Seroka, that call came in at 5:02 p.m. Carrigan then went to make sure everyone was safe. “From start to it being put out was about an hour,” Carrigan said, “but the firefighters were there in probably 15-20 minutes after I called.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have better info on the timing,” she added. She was more focused on everyone’s safety.

That 15-20 minutes can seem like eternity when there is an emergency. Given the closest fire station is about 6 minutes away, that response time is quick even when seconds matter. It took less than 10 minutes for the garage to become fully engulfed in flames. “When I arrived at the house it was already to the point you couldn’t enter. I called 911 before I left my house. I was sitting on my couch looking out the window and heard the bang… then saw fire coming out of their garage. I was on the phone for 1-2 minutes maybe then ran over there so best guess in between 5-10 minutes,” Fire

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Carrigan said regarding how fast the flames spread.

Shortly after, firefighters arrived on scene. “Their first priority was to make sure that there was no one in the house and they learned quite quickly that there wasn’t anyone in the home. So they were just attacking it from the outside,” Seroka said.

When fighting residential fires, often, there are multiple units fighting things on different fronts. They may have one team focused on eliminating the main fire while a second team focuses on protecting a different area of the home and a third or even a fourth team protecting the surrounding homes.

This fire brough together three agencies, “We had assistance from Newport fire and St. Paul Park fire,” Seroka added.

The Bardsley family is currently staying in an area hotel while things are sorted out. According to the GoFundMe page, “My parents were lucky to escape with their lives and their dog, Addison. Addison has a lot of health problems and my Mom has been carefully doting on her, trying to keep her comfortable and prolong her life. Since Addison couldn’t stay in the hotel alone, and my Mom cannot provide her the same level of care in the hotel, they had to make the difficult decision to put her down, the day after a fire claimed their home.”

While technically there were no casualties or injuries on the day of the fire, both from citizens and first responders, a family lost their home, all their belongings and a long-term pet because of the fire. If you can help, the GoFundMe can be found at https://gofund. me/14f0c1c0.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Unfortunately, a neighboring house was slightly damaged due to the proximity of the heat, but no other structures caught fire.

Within 10 minutes of it starting, this was the scene of a recent house fire on the 8800 block of Greene Ave S. Occupants of the home were able to get out safely with their pet and no one else was injured during the hour long fire.Photo courtesy of Michelle Carrigan.