Toddler saves family from fire

CLEAR LAKE, Wash. — A toddler saved his mother, father and home from a fire.

Lincoln Aldridge says his 3-year-old son, also named Lincoln, woke up early Saturday morning in a smoke-filled bedroom.

He woke his mom up as the chimney fire spread.

"We hardly heard him come in," Aldridge said. "He usually talks and he just grabbed her hand and pulled her out."

The family then ran out of the wood-framed house that Aldridge spent more than a year building by hand.

"It's all wood," he said. "Log, cedar, everything. A lot of combustible material, dry stuff."

It took nearly 40 minutes for smoke to reach detectors installed high on the vaulted walls.

Aldridge says his son saved the home from burning to the ground.

"The fire department said in another 10 minutes, we would have lost, if not a whole side of the house, maybe the whole house," he said.

Aldridge said that he expects the damage will require $150,000 in repairs. He hopes to have his family back home this spring.

"It's pretty scary," he said. "You don't realize it at the time. It still hasn't quite sunk in."

KIRO