NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A fast moving fire forced two Bellevue families to leave their homes in the middle of the night. Investigators said the fire may have started in a dryer vent.
Firefighters were called to a duplex on Westin Way around 2 a.m. Wednesday.
Residents said they may never have made it outside if it had not been for a barking dog.
"It was lucky the dog was barking. It woke me up and I saw all the colors outside the window, and i hooked up the hose," said resident John Zibelin.
Officials said a clogged ball of lint had apparently been smoldering for hours in the vent. Early Wednesday morning it caught fire and spread quickly. Firefighters said Zibelin grabbed his garden hose and stopped the fire from spreading.
"As soon as I got outside the whole side of the house was engulfed," said Zibelin.
Zibelin used the hose to keep the flames at bay until firefighters arrived.
"The gentleman who contained this with a garden hose, we need to sign him up for the Nashville Fire Department because he did a heck of a job," said one firefighter.
Officials said the lint was smoldering in a location where the vent blows out of the house. The plastic siding caught on fire and the blaze quickly worked its way up the eves of the house.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission says clogged lint causes around 15,000 house fires every year. Those fires can be fatal, killing about 20 people in 1998 alone.
