***Story updated to note that four children live in the home***

See related story about how to help the family

A Collinsville family is happy to be safe today after a fire engulfed their living room Saturday morning in the 700 block of Lasalle St.

Fire Chief Mark Emert looks on as a firefighter clears debris following a fire in the 700 block of Lasalle in Collinsville on Aug. 9, 2014 / Photo by Roger Starkey

A 14-year-old boy was the only person home when he heard something fall on the living room floor above him. When he went to investigate the noise, he found the room in flames. The path to the doorway was clear, so the son was able to leave the home unharmed.

When firefighters arrived, they were told by someone at the scene that small children may have been trapped in the back bedrooms, Collinsville Fire Chief Mark Emert said. Firefighters entered the back of the building to create a line between the fire and the bedrooms, but found no one in the house, Emert said.

The mother, who asked that the family’s name not be used for this story, rushed home from visiting friends and the father rushed from work to find their home severely damaged, but structurally sound. In between visits from firefighters, asking what were the most important things in the home that they wanted to salvage, the mother and father talked with friends and family, and shook their heads. Their son set on car in the driveway shaking, and occasionally crying, still shaken from the experience.

With school starting Monday, the family, with four children, lost their all of their clothes from the effects of the fire, Lannie Altenberger, an assistant coordinator for the Collinsville Emergency Management Association said. Altenberger contacted the American Red Cross, which was en route to assist the victims.

A neighbor approached the mother standing outside the house and tried to place money in her hand. The mother refused, but the neighbor was persistent. Placing the money firmly in the mother’s palm, the neighbor gave her a tight hug and said, “no, you are going to need it.”

Five fire trucks responded to the scene, including one each from Troy and Maryville. The fire appears to have been accidental, Emert said, starting near an outlet in the living room. A laptop computer was the only thing plugged into the outlet, the mother said.

The fire comes less than one week after a fire severely damaged an unoccupied house in the 100 block of Bluff Road in the overnight hours of Aug. 3. The preliminary investigation into the fires in two buildings at the old Maag Farm were ruled non-accidental.