(WSB-TV) – Firefighters and police officers in Roy, Utah, donated cash and gifts cards from their own pockets to a boy who watched his family’s home go up in flames on his birthday.
Tyten Sparks had just finished a special breakfast Wednesday and was preparing to go on an adventure for his 10th birthday with his mom and brother when he heard a rumbling noise in the garage of his family’s Roy home.
When Tyten felt heat outside the garage door, he quickly ran upstairs to alert his mom, Jacque Sparks.
“The fact that he felt the door and came to me right away is what saved our lives,” said Sparks, who ran out of the house with Tyten, her younger son, Knixus, 6, and the family’s pets. “All the damage to the house was done in about five minutes.”
Fire officials believe a malfunctioning motor in a refrigerator in the family’s garage caused the fire that damaged nearly the Sparks’ entire home and made it uninhabitable.
Along with their car, clothes, furniture and personal belongings, the family also lost all of Tyten’s birthday presents and the $36 Tyten had saved for an upcoming trip to Disneyland with his grandparents.
“They were pretty distraught,” Roy fire chief Jason Poulsen told ABC News. “After talking with the mom to find out what happened with the fire, she told us it was Tyten’s birthday and all of his gifts were inside.”
