CASTLE ROCK - An off-duty fire dispatcher for South Metro Fire helped save a family after their home caught fire early Thursday morning.
The fire started around midnight in the garage of a home in the 2000 block of Summerfield Drive in Castle Rock.
The off-duty dispatcher, Nate Keller, was dropping off a friend after watching the Colorado Avalanche game when he noticed the garage of the house caught fire.
Keller knocked on the door, woke up the family of four, and helped get them and their dog out safely. The two parents, the two girls - ages 1 and 3 - and the dog were all uninjured in the fire.
"We were dead asleep," Jonathan Clark, the homeowner, said. "We had went to bed and watched the 10 o'clock news and had kind of fallen asleep. We ran up, grabbed the kids. We got them out. We went back in for the dog, and by that time, the whole place was .... [so] smoky."
There is extensive damage to the garage of the home and the fire did not extend to the home.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Surrounding homes were not damaged.
The residents have family nearby so they will stay with them.
Clark said he thinks the rescuer is a hero.
"I'll buy the guy a beer, for sure," Clark said.
(KUSA-TV © 2014 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
