Suburban couple says free smoke detector installed by firefighters helped save their lives

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (WLS) -- An Arlington Heights couple is spreading the word about a simple precaution that they believe saved their home, if not their lives.

Although a kitchen fire gutted the main floor of their house, they're alive today and are now encouraging others to be proactive about fire safety, thanks to their local fire department.

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"As you can see, they're taking everything down: the ceiling, the walls, the floors," Lynn Baldoni said Tuesday.

Baldoni walked through the main living area of her family's home of 25 years. It's stripped to the studs after a kitchen fire just before Thanksgiving.

"I came around the corner here, and this was all black smoke, just billowing out," Baldoni said.

Baldoni says she and her husband, Thom, made a couple quick attempts to contain the flames bursting from the oven with a fire blanket and a fire extinguisher, but quickly realized it was too much for them to handle.

"I went to open the back door to let the smoke out. Because I saw the smoke and I was standing there, and I looked back, and all of a sudden, flames are shooting up this wall here," Thom Baldoni said.

The Baldonis are closing out 2025 living somewhere else temporarily while their home is repaired. But thanks to the efforts from the fire department installing a smoke detector just three months before the fire, they still have a home to come back to in 2026.

"No. 1, tax dollars at work, great, No.2, God bless them," Thom Baldoni said.

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The Arlington Heights Fire Department has installed nearly 700 smoke alarms in people's homes throughout the village this year alone. The alarms are donated by the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance and free of charge to residents.

"When I first talked to them about this, they said, in another two minutes, everything would have been gone, our home, our dog, us, everything," said Chris Rymut, Arlington Heights Fire Department division chief.

Instead, it's an insurance claim and an inconvenience.

"I mean, it's great. You know, we'd love to see everyone getting out safe. That's always the biggest concern. And then after that, we always want to minimize the property damage," firefighter and paramedic Michael Graf said.

And though the Baldonis couldn't be home for Christmas this year, they know they have a lot to be thankful for.

"We got out. And our dog, Jack, got out, and that was the most important thing. Everything else was secondary," Lynn Baldoni said.

"It's just amazing that people like this give up their life to do the things that save people like us," Thom Baldoni said.

To request smoke alarm installation in an Arlington Heights home, call AHFD at (847)-368-5450 or visit vah.com/smokealarm.