TONAWANDA, N.Y. — A City of Tonawanda police officer was in the right place at the right time and may have prevented a tragedy overnight.
Just after 2 AM Tuesday, Officer Steven Warthling was on patrol when he spotted a fire in a garbage tote and cardboard box that was growing in intensity next to a home on Ellicott Creek Road.
The officer grabbed a fire extinguisher from his vehicle and managed to put out the flames and move the tote away from the house where a family of four was sleeping inside.
After being made aware of what happened, the homeowners said the fire may have started from smoldering fireplace ashes that had been placed in the tote.
Damage was confined to some siding and the home's overhang.
