Neighbor's doorbell alert helps save New Jersey family from overnight blaze
Family escaped unharmed as neighbor warned them of the fire; fire officials say the blaze was accidental; Red Cross aiding.
Just before midnight on Sept. 20, the Pope family were asleep when a panicked neighbor saw flames at their home in Toms River and sprinted to their door to warn them. Josh frantically rang the doorbell and pounded on the front door, shouting for the family to get out.
The moment was captured on the Pope family's Ring doorbell camera, which shows Josh at the front door as debris falls and the street glows with the fire. The Pope family—Jonathan and his wife, their 17-year-old son, a nine-month-old baby, and their dog—escaped into the yard and into safety as embers drifted down.
Fire officials said the blaze began outside the home when improperly discarded smoking materials ignited cardboard boxes and a trash bin, before spreading to the garage, porch, attic and a second-floor bedroom.
Several fire companies responded and brought the blaze under control. No one was injured, and the Pope home was declared unsafe to live in by the township's building department.
The Pope family has received aid from the American Red Cross and has launched an online fundraiser while awaiting insurance assistance. "We're devastated, but also deeply grateful to our neighbor, the first responders, and the Red Cross," Jonathan Pope told Jersey Shore Hurricane News. "Without them, this could have been so much worse."
News12 New Jersey identified Josh and Lori as the neighbors who helped, and the community rallied with offers of water and a place to change their baby. Authorities, including Matthew Janora, chief fire inspector for the Toms River Bureau of Fire Prevention, said the fire started outside the home and was ruled accidental.