Emergency servicesA fast-acting neighbor alerted a family to a house fire early Tuesday morning. The fire seriously damaged the home located on Nantucket Road in Greece.

“I looked out the front door and there was flames coming out of the garage,” said Steve Amico, the neighbor and rescuer.

Amico saw the flames across the street from his Nantucket Road home as he was getting ready for work. Moments later, he ran over to help.

“I pounded on the door and the little girl came out the front door and Tim came out finally. They were both sleeping in the front living room,” said Amico.

Amico’s neighbors, a father and daughter, escaped the fire unharmed, and are thankful their neighbor woke them up.

The fire destroyed the garage and most of the house. It took firefighters about 35 minutes, as well as some broken windows and a few holes in the roof, to stop the blaze.

Fire investigators do not know how the fire started or if the home had working smoke detectors. The combination of automatic sprinklers and an early warning system could could reduce loss of property by at least 50% in situations like this.

“Smoke detectors would’ve provided a greater degree of warning — giving everybody more time, giving us more time, and them more time to escape. Luckily nobody got hurt,” said Steve Mills, Ridge Road Fire District assistant fire chief.

House fires aren’t the only concern the city of Rochester has this summer.

While sale and use of fireworks remains banned in Monroe County, sparklers are now legal in Wayne, Ontario, and Livingston counties, but they cannot be used by someone under the age of 18.

However, underage users are only part of the concern.

“You’ve got to remember, these are still burning at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit,” Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn said.

Fire officials say that the two-inch precipitation deficit in June, and four-inch precipitation deficit since March 1 add an extra layer of danger to this kind of summer fun.

“If you are using sparklers in a county that allows them, make sure that you have something to be able to extinguish those sparklers like a bucket of water nearby,” Gates Fire Department Fire Prevention Officer Joe Manuse. “Have a hose available in case the sparkler breaks, falls to the ground. You don’t want to start any unnecessary brush fires.”

As for the victims of the Greece house fire, The American Red Cross is helping the family with food and housing. Steve says he is happy he could help and hopes others would do the same in that situation.