A Bradford family escaped to safety after working smoke alarms alerted them to a fire in the middle of the night.
Bradford West Gwillimbury Firefighters were called to the home on Taylor Court around 2:45 a.m. after flames broke out in the garage.
"Upon arrival, there was a fully involved garage fire which was extending back into the house," said Fire Chief Kevin Gallant, adding the fire was also starting to reach the house next door, which firefighters headed off.
"My crews did an excellent job in regards to preventing the fire from going into the original house by getting at it quickly and knocking it down and stopping it from causing much more damage."
Gallant said it could've been much worse because typically in these cases fire destroys the roof but was prevented at this home due to the efforts of firefighters.
Some of the flames did cause some damage to the basement through a garage access door, he said.
"The homeowners were awakened due to working smoke alarms activating in the house. They came to the front and thought there was a vehicle was on fire and then they realized it was the garage that was actually on fire so they evacuated the house and waited for fire out in front for our arrival," the Chief said.
Firefighters were gratified to see that when they arrived on scene, someone had dug out the snow from around the fire hydrant on the street.
Gallant puts the early damage estimate between at least $150,000 to $200,000.
"The entire garage is gone and two vehicles out front were both damaged. There was some fire that got into the basement because of access to the basement in the garage. There is some structural damage there."
The couple and a son in his twenties were not hurt and there were no injuries to firefighters who battled the blaze in frigid temperatures. Gallant also noted that wind conditions were favourable to firefighting and did not push the blaze into the house.
Insurance representatives were on scene this morning.
The cause is under investigation but the Fire Chief says it is not suspicious in nature.
The fire hydrant cleared and working smoke alarms suggests that perhaps some of the safety messaging from fire departments is working.
"I certainly hope so," said Gallant.
