Family saved from burning home by 6-year-old girl

SWAMPSCOTT, Mass. - A fire that swept through the home of a Massachusetts firefighter was prevented from harming anyone thanks to the quick thinking of a 6-year-old girl.

The blaze began just before 5 a.m. on Tuesday and spread quickly through the home in Swampscott, on Massachusetts's North Shore, about 15 miles from Boston, tearing through its roof.

But the firefighter's daughter was awakened when a fan in her room unexpectedly cut off and she smelled smoke. She warned her parents that the fire was spreading and along with their two sons, they narrowly escaped the burning house.

"Probably with just no more than a minute to spare they got out," Swampscott Fire Chief Kevin Breen told CBS Boston.

"It was near her bedroom, so she would have been, I don't even want to think about it," the girl's mother, Lori Pierro, said. "If she didn't know what to do, then...I don't know what would have happened," Pierro said.

The family's fire evacuation plan helped to hasten their escape from the burning house.

"We're all safe. That's the most important thing. Things can be replaced but your family can't. And we are all safe," Pierro said.