Talk about fate. An alarm set on a mobile phone days ago saved a young couple caught in a house fire.
The couple awoke right around 6 a.m. when a cell phone alarm went off -- and they smelled smoke.
"Apparently she had set it a couple (the alarm) days ago and forgot to turn it off," said Leonard Villarreal with San Miguel Fire District. "That probably saved 'em."
The two-story home on Valley View Boulevard caught fire just before 6 a.m. Thanks to the cell phone alarm, the couple escaped the flames with two of their pets - a dog and a toucan. A pet reptile didn't make it.
When firefighters entered the home to fight the fire, they had trouble getting to it because of all the boxes and clutter inside. They say the fire was so intense, they couldn't even get inside the 80-year old house.
The house next door was evacuated.
Several small explosions were heard, likely from propane tanks.
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"It was scary, we were sleeping, then all of a sudden we heard pops, we rose right out of bed and looked out our windows, then the house next door, a big red flash outside our window," said neighbors Nia and David Rodriguez. "It was just flames not far from our house."
The man who lives in the burned home suffered minor injuries.
The cause is under investigation.
