The laundry room in the garage appears to be the point where this fire started!
Six people escaped an early morning house fire Monday after two Albany men woke up the residents inside and helped them to safety.
Eric O'Brien was walking from an area market to meet up with a co-worker who lives across the street from the fire when he saw smoke billowing from an attached garage in the 1000 block of 18th Avenue SE.
O'Brien alerted his co-worker and called 911 before running across the street to the burning home.
"One of the girls was just coming out, she didn't know what was going on," said Mike Dodson, who was waiting for O'Brien outside his nearby home. "When I looked behind her I could see the flames coming out of the garage, that's when we went into panic mode."
O'Brien said when they entered the home they could see flames coming out of the garage area into the dining room. The two helped five people out of the house, including a man in a wheelchair.
"We were helping everyone out as fast as we could," O'Brien said.
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Albany Fire responded with 17 firefighters and knocked the fire down, which was contained mostly to the laundry room in the garage area, said Assistant Chief Shane Wooten.
Two pets living in the home were also brought out safely, Wooten said.
According to the local American Red Cross, the fire affected three adults, and the organization provided resources including temporary housing, food, clothing, comfort kits with toiletry items, information about recovery services and health and mental health services.
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