At ADT we are honored with the privilege of protecting family homes, their possessions and family members, even their cherished guinea pigs! The everyday stories we hear remind us of our awesome responsibility like this one, where a visiting grandmother named Grace and a small guinea pig called Wizma both escaped their smoke filled home before tragedy.  

Grandma was alone.
It happened one late evening in October. Grace, 74, visiting from out of town, was dozing on the couch. Suddenly she was startled by the lights and sirens from the home’s security system which filled the home.

“I blanked out, I panicked and didn’t even think to call 911,” she said. “And since I was visiting from out-of-town, I didn’t know the name of the fire department. While it’s hard for me to walk, I did make it to the basement stairs and could smell smoke.”

A harrowing hour drive back to the house.
The rest of the family was at a soccer game about 50 minutes away. The game was loud and crowded. They couldn’t hear their phones going off, missing call after call from an increasingly alarmed Grace. “I had several missed calls from ADT. I had several texts from a cousin and a friend of mine who said fire trucks are being dispatched to our house,” said Greg Massad, Grace’s son-in-law.

The 50-minute ride back to the house was frightening to say the least. Was Grandma Grace okay?  She had not been feeling well that night. What about the house, was it on fire? And did anybody remember Wizma?

Thankfully, ADT had already received the smoke detector signal at its Texas monitoring center and called the local Goshen, CT fire department. When firefighters arrived, Grace was already safely outside. The cause of the alarm? A dehumidifier had short circuited in the basement causing the fire alarms to go off and rouse Grace out of her sleep.

The Goshen Firefighters were satisfied with the response. Said one firefighter, “They did have an alarm system which alerted not only the alarm company, but alerted the occupants of the house that something was going on. The Grandmother was able to get out to safety.  She told us where to find the guinea pig so it could be rescued. Maybe ten to twelve minutes more, had we not been alerted, and we wouldn’t be standing here right now in front of a perfectly good house.”

At ADT we are honored with the privilege of protecting family homes, their possessions and family members, even their cherished guinea pigs! The everyday stories we hear remind us of our awesome responsibility like this one, where a visiting grandmother named Grace and a small guinea pig called Wizma both escaped their smoke filled home before tragedy.  

Safety And Success For Everyone
To celebrate the successful outcome, Amelia Pulliam, ADT’s Chief Human Resources Officer presented LifeSaver Awards to four ADT employees whose jobs contributed to the save. Included were ADT Dispatchers Sandra Johnson and Tonya Wilson who flew 1,700 miles from ADT’s Customer Care Center in Irving, TX to meet Rogers for the first time.

Greg Massad summed it up best, “You never think it’s going to happen. There’s so many benefits to the system that we have, we never think an actual event is going to happen, but now we know if it does, we’re going to be protected.”

We hear you Greg. It’s our privilege and pleasure to take care of you and your family.