Smoke Detector Credited With Saving Mother, 2 Children From San Pablo House Fire

SAN PABLO (CBS SF) -- A smoke detector saved a mother and her two children from a fire that displaced them from a home Sunday morning in San Pablo, a captain of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District said.

The fire was first reported at 5:59 a.m. in the 900 block of Road 20, Capt. Lisa Martinez said.

The first firefighters on the scene saw smoke coming from a single-family home. Before firefighters arrived, the mother called the fire department to say a smoke detector had gone off and she and her two children, 17 and 21, had gotten out of the home safely.

Firefighters had the fire knocked down at 6:19 a.m. and the fire was extinguished at 6:33 a.m., Martinez said.

The fire did about $10,000 in damage and is under investigation.

The damage was confined to a bedroom and its contents, but smoke and heat damaged the rest of the three-bedroom, roughly 1,200 square foot home, Martinez said.

She encourages all families to check their smoke detectors once a month.

"It saved this family's life," she said.

Fire