Smoke detector failed

Flame hell! Family escapes from Airbnb house

(Bild: kameraone)

The Schoenfeld family had an unforgettable vacation in the US state of Florida - but unfortunately not in a good way. A fire broke out in their Airbnb vacation home in the middle of the night. Eight people fled from the flames via the balcony. The smoke alarms were apparently faulty ...

The family in the coastal town of Destin were woken from their sleep by the sound of shattering windows on Tuesday morning. At first they thought it was a break-in, but then they realized that a fire had broken out in the vacation home and was spreading rapidly. They had to get the children to safety as quickly as possible.

"We had to take them to the balcony. We tried to find the safest way to get them down," says Lacey Schoenfeld, describing the dramatic minutes.

The Schoenfeld family survived the flaming inferno unscathed.(Bild: kameraone)

"I handed the children over the ledge, where they held on to the railing and eventually let them fall down to the nephew." All eight people in the house eventually made it outside unharmed. But the damage is enormous: cell phones, ID cards and three cars were destroyed in the flames. 

Irretrievable memorabilia destroyed
Particularly tragic: irretrievable memories of one of the family's sons also fell victim to the fire. He had died in an accident last October at the age of 20. "I had a bear with the sound of his heartbeat, my youngest daughter had his favorite hoodie, which was covered in paint stains. My other daughter had a printout of his heartbeat in a jar. These are things we can't replace," regrets Lacey Schoenfeld.

It is unclear what caused the fire. Not a single fire alarm went off, the family explained. Unfortunately, neighbors had not noticed the fire either - at least no one had raised the alarm. The Schoenfelds therefore recommend checking smoke alarms in vacation homes.