The Associated Press: Newspaper Carrier Alerts Family to Fire
File this under...we don't need no stinkin' smoke detector!
LENOIR CITY, Tenn. (AP) — A family in eastern Tennessee credits a newspaper carrier with saving their lives from a fire that was consuming their log cabin — and they weren't even subscribers.
"I know that woman will be rewarded in heaven one day," Charlene Dunsmore said of the 29-year-old carrier, Carston Jane McKee.
McKee was driving her route for The Knoxville News Sentinel on Saturday morning when she spotted flames on the porch of the Dunsmores' home on a country road. She was about 45 minutes earlier than usual because of an early press run.
McKee called 911 but didn't wait for a response.
"I ran to the log cabin and started beating on the windows," she said. "As soon as the lady opened up the front door, the fire was right next to the door."
Dunsmore, her husband, Shawn, and their 8-year-old son, James Paul "J. P." Dunsmore, fled the house barefoot but unscathed, though their two poodles died in the blaze, which quickly swept through their two-year-old home.
"We can't thank her enough," Shawn Dunsmore's aunt, Mary Ruth Dunsmore, said of McKee. "She went above and beyond. They're alive today because of what she did."
McKee remained at the scene for nearly an hour answering authorities' questions before resuming her paper route.
"It could have been anybody," she said.
