Family saved as historic Bridgewater home destroyed in fire and explosion: "This huge fireball in the sky."

A family of three escaped a devastating fire and explosion at a home in Bridgewater, Massachusetts early Friday morning thanks to two good Samaritans and a police officer.

Flames broke out at the single-family house on Crescent Street just before 1:30 a.m. Eduardo Alvarenga and his friend Jamie Marie Sheridan were driving to the gas station when he said they saw the fire. Sheridan called 911 as Alvarenga pulled into a driveway. The home is next door to the Bridgewater police station.

"She runs up to the door, like jumps over the little fence and starts knocking on the door saying 'Hello, hello.' I'm in the car beeping the horn, trying to get their attention and still no one's coming outside for a little bit," Alvarenga told reporters.

He said the whole garage was "engulfed" and he heard glass breaking and things popping. Bridgewater Police Officer Marc-Stephen Hutchins then arrived and started knocking on the door as well.

"Eventually after like a minute or so, they were all able to one-by-one come out of the house," Alvarenga said. Hutchins also saved two cats from the fire.

Gas containers explode in garage

Bridgewater Fire Chief John Schlatz said several gas containers in the garage then exploded.

"We heard a huge blast at about two o'clock in the morning. It shook the house, rattled the windows and I just was like, 'Something horrible had to have happened,'" neighbor Alison Green told reporters. "I looked out the window and I could just see this huge fireball in the sky, and I've never seen anything like that." 

No one was hurt, but the roof of the garage collapsed during the fire and the home and several vehicles were destroyed. 

It's not clear yet when or where the fire started. 

"The fire is not suspicious. They've identified multiple potential factors, all of which are accidental," Jake Wark, a spokesman for the state's Department of Fire Services, told WBZ-TV in an email.

Schlatz said it took about 45 minutes to get the fire under control.

"It's still under investigation," he said.

Firefighters from several towns were called in to help.

"Little treasure that's gone"

"This a really historic house for Bridgewater. This all used to be a big farm," Green said. "That's a little treasure that's gone."

Bridgewater, Massachusetts is about 30 miles south of Boston.