ADAMS -- Fire Chief Stephen D. Brown credited smoke detectors with saving a local family's home from a fire blamed on a faulty hot-water heater early yesterday morning.

Brown said smoke detectors awoke Stephen Lefave, his wife, Susan, and their three children shortly after 2:30 a.m. at their home at 5 Walnut St., where fire had erupted in the cellar.

"When we got there, the house was fully charged with smoke, and there were flames in the cellar," Brown said.

About 20 volunteers with the Alert Hose Company extinguished the blaze, which had spread into floor joists on the first floor, Brown said. He said crews were on the scene for about two hours.

He said Stephen Lefave had tried to call 911 from the house, but the fire had burned through the telephone wires. Lefave made the call from a neighbor's house at 2:38 a.m., according to the fire log.

Brown said the cellar sustained extensive damage, and the first floor minimal smoke damage, although firefighters had to remove baseboards and flooring to attack the fire. The house was insured, he said.

The family had no heat for the night, and the Red Cross provided them with a hotel room, Brown said.

"This just shows that smoke detectors are so very important," he said. "At that time of night, if smoke detectors weren't in that building -- and working -- certainly the damage to the building could have been worse and the outcome a lot different for the occupants."