Fire alarms save the life of Erath alderman, family

ERATH - Guy Nerren, wife Stephanie and son Ty, are alive today thanks to the smoke detectors that went off Friday morning in their mobile home.
According to Guy, who is the assistant police chief in Maurice and an Erath alderman, he had fallen asleep on his recliner. At around 12:30 a.m. on Friday, a beeping sound awakened Guy. He realized it was the fire alarms.
He popped out of his recliner to search for the fire. He saw the fire had started by a window unit. Once he saw how big the fire was, he began yelling at his family, who were sleeping, getting out of the mobile home.
“I began yelling the house was on fire,” said Guy on Friday morning. “I yelled a couple of times before they awoke.
“I am telling you right now, you always think about it, but when I awoke, I did not smell smoke. I just heard the alarms going off. We were grateful to have them.”
After he got his family out safely, he tried to go back in, but the smoke was too thick for him to see. He had to exit the house, he said.
When he got out of the house, he ran across the street to have a neighbor call 911. The neighbor, who is also a volunteer fireman, called 911 and then ran to the Nerren home and began turning off the electricity.
Within minutes, the Erath Fire Department was on the scene, battling the fire. They had everything under control within minutes.
Friday morning the Nerrens had not slept and were dealing with getting their life back together. By 11 a.m. there was more bad news.
Guy thought he had homeowner’s insurance. He called his agent Friday morning to make a claim, and he learned his insurance was canceled in April. According to Guy, he discovered his agent canceled their homeowner’s insurance when the agent should have only canceled the Nerrens’ flood insurance, Guy said.
“I am dealing with it,” he said on Friday morning.
Donations can be made at any Bank of Erath branch under the name, “Benefit for the Nerren Family.”