Fire Breaks Out While Child Sleeps on Couch at Missouri Home

A Missouri fire department has stressed the importance of smoke detectors and escape plans after a young child and her family escaped a fast-spreading fire in their home on February 23.

Footage shared by Joplin Fire Department shows the child asleep on a living room couch as the fire breaks out on the front porch.

The blaze quickly spreads inside, and the child can be heard coughing as smoke fills the room.

Luckily, the family had a smoke alarm system in place, which soon went off. The child escaped out the back entrance, as she’d been told to do, and the rest of the family followed.

“If the alarm had not sounded it is possible that the family would not have have had time to escape to safety,” the department wrote alongside the dramatic video. Credit: Joplin Fire Department via Storyful