Historic Cleveland Home Fire

Around 1:30 a.m. on May 16, McKenzie Hartman was asleep on the second floor of his historic wood house near downtown Cleveland. Also sleeping nearby was his two-year-old, white German Shepherd, Daisy.

Suddenly awakened by his ADT smoke detector, McKenzie got up to investigate. Walking down the stairs which end at the front door, McKenzie smelled and then saw heavy smoke in his living room. In horror, he looked out the window and saw the entire front porch engulfed in flames.

Grabbing his wallet, keys, phone and Daisy, McKenzie ran outside through the back door and got inside his car.

Firefighters quickly arrived and doused the flames. McKenzie realized that without the smoke detector waking him up, the fire could have quickly entered the house and spread up the stairs, blocking the only escape for Daisy and him.

The porch was destroyed and there was extensive smoke damage throughout the house which had to be professionally cleaned.

McKenzie was set to graduate the next day, but couldn’t attend because of the fire aftermath.

Shortly after moving into his home in December, McKenzie had purchased a DIY system and was planning to install it, but a few days later, a sales representative from an ADT Authorized Dealer knocked on his door and explained the differences between a professionally installed and monitored system from ADT versus his DIY. McKenzie was impressed and went with the ADT security system which ultimately helped save his life.