The shrill blaring of a smoke alarm woke them up. But the harrowing account of two residents trying to navigate stairs through the smoke and flames proved to be a challenge that has shaken this neighborhood.
The fire last Sunday gutted a two-story home in the Jefferson Beach Estates neighborhood of Kingston.
A couple, who want to maintain their privacy in a difficult time, were sleeping on the second floor and narrowly escaped. They managed to get down to the lower level, where they opened a glass slider and reached the porch.
Their neighbor and close friend is now sounding her own alarm, trying to help educate others about how to increase the odds of surviving a house fire.
"They're incredibly fortunate. The house was filled with smoke and were flames," said Laura Engle Gronnvoll. " It was so quick that it was just a matter of time that they might not have made it out. So smoke alarms...that's what saved them."