Cary family averts tragedy

A Cary family was left without a home after a massive blaze destroyed their two-story home early Tuesday morning.

The losses could have been much worse if not for a working smoke detector that alerted one of the residents to the fire, a Cary Fire Protection District news release said.

John Zaehringer was awakened by an activated smoke detector just before 4 a.m. Zaehringer saw light smoke in the hallway outside his bedroom, the release states. When he went downstairs, Zaehringer encountered thicker and hotter smoke but did not see any fire. He then went back upstairs to awake his wife and child. The trio left the house unscathed.

Firefighters found the basement engulfed in flames that shot up the wall to the first and second floors of the home. Part of the first floor collapsed into the basement. It took fire crews more than an hour to extinguish the fire.

Officials said the cause of the blaze is unknown. The house is uninhabitable.

"Working smoke detectors saved the Zaehringer family this morning," Lt. Michael Douglas said in the release. "Without working smoke detectors the outcome of this fire could have been tragically different."