ALEPPO TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – A man was able to escape to safety before fire destroyed his home in Aleppo Township late Saturday night.

According to officials at the scene, the fire broke out around 9:30 p.m. in the 300-block of Sewickley Ridge Drive.

Joe Barnes says he woke up just in time to get out before the roof over his bedroom collapsed.

Barnes says he believes the fire sparked in the downstairs fireplace of his home, and spread quickly through the chimney and into the walls.

“I’m assuming that it started somewhere in the flue above the ceiling,” said Barnes. “And the fire raged, but there was, when i woke up, there was no noise.”

Bob Snow, a neighbor, couldn’t believe what he saw from across the street.

“The back side of that house was just going straight up in smoke and fire,” said Snow.

Barnes was asleep when the fire started, but says he was awakened by the sound of a recessed light crashing to the floor.

“If he hadn’t perhaps heard that crash noise to wake him up, he would have been damaged or even dead,” Snow.

Barnes was home alone; his wife was away in Texas. The couple’s cars were destroyed, along with just about everything else in his house.

“I lost stuff; I lost skin on the bottom of my foot from walking on some coals. My wife and I lost a lot of mementos,” Barnes said. “You can replace the stuff; I can replace the skin; you can replace the mementos.”

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