ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – A Roanoke County family is counting their blessings just a month after a fire broke out with two children home alone.
Luckily, everyone got out safely and Wednesday, they got to thank the people who made that possible.
"I was really scared, but I knew that it was going to be alright," said 10-year-old Emma DeGeorgis, who called 911.
Dramatic doorbell video shows the moments when Emma and her brother escaped their home safely and first responders arrived to put the fire out.
Their mother wasn’t home at the time but credits ADT, dispatchers and first responders for alerting her to the fire and getting on the scene quickly.
"It could've been a lot worse,” Nancy DeGeorgis said. “I didn't lose everything."
The damage to the home is hard to see from the outside but is evident upstairs.
The fire was caused by a blanket falling on top of a candle on the floor.
"I’m just amazed that so little damage was actually done," Nancy said.
Nancy credits dispatchers and first responders for limiting the damage to upstairs.
"There's some calls that you go home and literally instead of going to sleep, you're going, 'God, I wonder how those people are' and really we don't know. So yeah, this is good. I know they're okay," said Genise Quinton, ADT emergency response dispatcher.
"I may have lost some belongings, but I have my home and I have my family and that's what's most important," Nancy said. "It's a miracle. God had his little hand on us that night and kept us safe."
"I was just so happy I was okay and my lizard, my dogs, my brother, me, my mom … it's just amazing," Emma said.
The DeGeorgis family should be back in their home in the next six to eight months.
ADT presented the dispatcher with the lifesaver award Wednesday and gave the Roanoke County Fire Department a $5,000 check.