DES MOINES, Iowa — Firefighters are crediting smoke detectors for saving two lives Tuesday morning after a home in the Good Park neighborhood caught fire.

Fire crews were called to a home in the 1100 block of 18th Street just after 6:00 a.m. on a fire and when they arrived they found flames coming from the front of the home.

The two occupants of the home were able to escape without injury and firefighters say the smoke detectors that woke them saved their lives.

“I can’t highlight the importance of smoke detectors enough. They did save two lives this morning. the occupants were asleep when the fire came out. They came out of their rooms and had heavy smoke in the house but they were able to exit away from the fire, to the rear of the structure without being injured. I don’t think it would have been a real good situation for them had they not had smoke detectors in their house. I can say that they saved two lives this morning,” Lt. Mickey Kinzenbaw with the Des Moines Fire Department said.

Once on scene, crews were able to knock down the fire pretty quickly.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

WHO TV 13 video

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DES MOINES, Iowa —
Des Moines fire officials said one person was injured in a house fire in the 3700 block of 5th Avenue just before 7 a.m. Monday.

Arriving crews found flames coming from the back of the structure. As crews were about to make entrance, there was a small smoke explosion, fire officials said.

Fire officials told KCCI one person was injured in the blaze and was transported to a local hospital with unspecified injuries. One other person was able to escape the blaze.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. No other details were released.

Check the KCCI Breaking News and Weather App for updates on this developing story.

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JOHNSTON, Iowa -- You clear the snow from your driveway, you clear the snow from your sidewalk ... but there's one thing you may be forgetting to clear.

Metro fire departments are asking you to take a minute to clear the snow from around the fire hydrants on your block. The hydrants are placed close to roads so they are easy for fire trucks to reach. That also makes them susceptible to being buried by snow plows.

You aren't legally responsible to dig out a fire hydrant in front of your house. However if its not clear and a fire breaks out then fire fighters will have to spend their time digging instead of extinguishing flames.

Tristan Johnson with the Johnston Fire Department says if you haven't unburied your fire hydrant yet then now is the time to act. "The more the weather gets cold, we have melting and refreezing, the harder it is to dig out," Johnson says, "The snow kind of gets compacted. The higher the pile gets the heavier it is for us to shovel out."

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