Medfield Resident's Awareness Helped Prevent Tuesday’s House Fire from Being 'Much Worse'

The and area firefighters stopped an thanks in part to the awareness of Medfield resident Paul Cunningham.

Cunningham, a UPS truck driver, was delivering the last of his overnight packages Tuesday morning when he turned on to South Street off of Route 27 and saw smoke.

"I was coming up the hill and glanced to my right and saw smoke,” said Cunnigham. “Because the truck is higher, I think I had better vision of it than in a car. The smoke was shooting upward, like a kettle, so I pulled over and saw that the smoke was coming out of all four sides of the house ... it was white smoke. I dialed 911."

Cunnigham acted quickly, informing the state police of the situation and waiting for Medfield Fire Chief William Kingsbury to arrive to the scene.

"My father was a fireman so I knew not to touch the door,” Cunningham said. “I never saw a flame, just smoke.  I waited until Chief Kingsbury arrived and then ran to move my truck because I heard sirens and didn't want the truck in the way, but I had to leave because I had one more overnight package to deliver."

Fire crews from Medfield, Walpole, Millis and Westwood arrived to the scene around 10:30 a.m. and were able to put out the fire by 11 a.m.

“It’s a tough spot,” Kingsbury said of the location of the home on South Street. “You come up the hill and you don’t really notice the house. It was a credit to [Cunnigham] for noticing it and calling it right in. It could have been a few more minutes either way and could have been worse.”

Medfield Police Chief Robert E. Meaney Jr. agreed.

"No one was home," Meaney said. "If [Cunnigham] didn't see it, it could have been a lot worse."

Cunningham says he was simply in the “right place at the right time,” but for the owners of 180 South St., his efforts were nothing short of heroic.

"The owners will be able to salvage their belongings," Kingsbury said.

Cunningham was glad to hear no one was home and firefighters were able to stop the fire quickly.

“I'm so happy it turned out the way it did,” Cunningham said. … “I came back a couple of times because I wanted to make sure no one was in that house. … I'm so happy no one was at home.”

Ironically, three to four hours after reporting Tuesday’s house fire, Cunningham had a package to deliver to 180 South St. He said it was oranges and the box said "Happy Easter."

“It felt very odd delivering it,” Cunningham said. “But a relative of the homeowners was there to take it.”

Kingsbury said he was grateful for the efforts of area firefighters and the awareness of Cunningham to stop the fire relatively quickly ­– especially on a day the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for high fire danger.

“There were no injuries and you can’t ask for anything more than that,” Kingsbury said. “The guys made a great stop and everybody working together got the job done."

Medfield Patch contributor Colleen Sullivan contributed to this report.