DESTIN, FLA. (WSVN) A vacation at an Airbnb in Destin ended in flames after a device that was suppose to detect danger failed. The family inside was surrounded by smoke and their only way to escape the flames was from a balcony.
While everyone made it out OK, they’re still wondering why the smoke detectors at the rental house did not go off.
The incident happened Tuesday morning after Lacey and Rodney Schoenfeld were woken up by exploding glass.
Seconds later, their Destin Airbnb was up in flames and their only option was to find a way out for them and their daughters.
“The only thing we could do was shove them out on the balcony,” Lacey said. “Try to figure out the safest way to get them down. He climbed over the ledge. There was like a little over-hang thing. I was handing the kids to him over the ledge and getting them to hold onto the railing, and drop them down to our nephew.”
The family was hoping for a relaxing vacation in the sun and were not expecting the rental home to catch on fire.
“Bruises, he obviously has broken glass in his feet, lacerations with heat blisters inside the lacerations,” she said. “My youngest daughter has scrapes from her should all the way to below her bottom.”
The family said that not a single fire alarm went of inside and it was a neighbor who called the fire department.
“If you are going on vacation, I would check the smoke detectors,” Amanda Morgan said. “Don’t just think they are gonna work because that is what we thought too.”
The family lost their phones, Id’s and three cars but that isn’t what they cared about the most
“We lost our son back in October,” Lacey said. “He was 20 years old, in an accident. I had a Build-A-Bear with his heartbeat in it, my youngest daughter had his favorite hoodie, it had paint stains on it. It was his favorite hoodie she takes that everywhere. My other daughter had a print out of his heartbeat in a glass jar. Those are things you can’t replace.”
The family said they’re grateful everyone was safe.
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