Son’s heroics save family
Published: November 3, 2006
A 25-year-old man’s heroics - made possible by a bout of insomnia - saved the lives of his parents and four siblings as their Longview Road home was destroyed in an early morning fire Wednesday, Oct. 25.
Patriarch William Cutler credited his adult son, Kyle, with rescuing the family of seven from a smoky blaze that began in a downstairs bedroom and quickly consumed the house.
“If Kyle hadn’t gotten up, we all would have died, it was so close,” said Cutler during an interview Monday from his Cedar Knolls office.
As it was, five of the family’s seven pet dogs perished in the blaze, and three family members - William, wife Jackie and Kyle - had to be rescued from a rooftop where they were trapped after climbing out a window.
William, Kyle and 21-year-old Carlie - who was sleeping in the room where the blaze began - were hospitalized for smoke inhalation and burns.
All family members are now out of the hospital and staying in a Bernards Township hotel while looking for a home to rent temporarily. Nearly all their possessions were destroyed in the fire.
“The feeling is like no other feeling when everything is gone,” commented Cutler. “But in the end, we’re alive, and that’s the thing.”
In addition to William, Jackie, Kyle and Carlie, the Cutler family includes daughter Christen, 22, and sons Trey, 16, a student at Bernards High School in Bernardsville, and Conor, 12, a student at the Bedminster Township School.
Sleepless Night
Cutler said his eldest son, who works at the family’s water conservation equipment business, Niagara Conservation Corp., is the primary reason why the family survived.
But it also took help from several local police officers, who rescued William, Jackie and Kyle from a rooftop where they were huddled against sparks and smoke.
According to Cutler, Kyle was having trouble sleeping in his second floor bedroom at about 4:30 a.m. when he heard muffled screaming from downstairs. It was Carlie, trapped in her bedroom by a smoky fire that may have been started by a candle.
Cutler said Carlie’s room had just been painted the day before and the furniture had not yet been moved back into place. So when she awakened to find her room filled with choking black smoke, she couldn’t escape.
“She was totally disoriented and could not find the door or window,” said Cutler. “She was hysterical.”
Fortunately, Kyle heard the cries for help and ran downstairs. But by the time he got to Carlie’s room, there was nothing but silence.
“She had given up,” said her father. “She had put the covers over her head and was just lying there (in bed).”
According to Cutler, Kyle yelled to his sister and she was able to use his voice as a guide to find the door. “He couldn’t see her and she couldn’t see him,” Cutler said.
Kyle pulled Carlie outside, then ran back inside to awaken the rest of the family.
‘Get Out!’
Cutler said Kyle managed to get Christen, Trey and Conor out the door, than returned to the second floor to find his parents, whose bedroom was directly above Carlie’s.
Cutler recalled being awakened by his son screaming, “Get out.”
“I got up, disoriented,” he said. “Kyle pulled my wife out of bed.”
The phone rang - the alarm company, as it turned out, calling to find out if the automatic signal should be disregarded - but Kyle told them not to answer. They headed for the door.
“As soon as we got out of the bedroom (and into the hallway), it was like walking through a cylinder of black smoke,” recalled Cutler.
By then, fire prevented the family from escaping down the staircase. The electricity also went out, leaving them in total darkness.
Cutler said he and his wife followed Kyle as he groped his way along the hallway wall. The family came to a sudden halt when they bumped into a hutch, which in their confusion they didn’t recognize for what it was.
Cutler said his son almost passed out at that point from lack of oxygen. But he managed to get himself and his parents past the hutch and into his bedroom at the end of the house opposite the fire.
There, they climbed out a window and onto a roof where Cutler dialed 9-1-1 from a cell phone.
Frightening Wait
Because the Cutler home is located in the far northern end of Bedminster, near the Chester Township border, the 9-1-1 call was routed to Chester. Meanwhile, the alarm company had dispatched Bedminster police and firefighters to the scene.
Cutler said the approximately 20-minute wait for the first responders was terrifying.
“The sparks were coming around the house, hitting us in the face,” recalled Cutler. Smoke was also blowing at them as a high wind gusted.
For a few frantic minutes, he added, they didn’t think Conor had gotten out of the house because he was standing outside of their view.
There was also a tapping at one of the windows, which in retrospect, Cutler believes was one of the family dogs trying to escape.
“They were caught in the house and couldn’t get out,” said Cutler, noting that one of the dogs was pregnant and about to have puppies. “I can’t even allow myself to think about it right now.”
Rooftop Rescue
According to Pottersville Volunteer Fire Company Chief Tom Anderson, he and Bedminster Township Police Officer Thomas Valente were first to arrive on-scene, where they found Carlie Cutler lying on the ground.
According to Bedminster Detective Sgt. Craig Meyer, rookie cop Valente had enough presence of mind to run into the garage and find a ladder, which he used to rescue William, Jackie and Kyle Cutler with the assistance of the other officers.
All seven family members were taken to Morristown Memorial Hospital, and Carlie was subsequently flown to the burn unit at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston because her injuries were the most critical.
Kyle and William Cutler were hospitalized for one night, while Carlie remained at St. Barnabas for three days.
Cutler said his daughter, an aspiring model, is still suffering pain from burns to her hands, nose and lips.
Lack Of Water
Firefighters said their efforts to extinguish the fire were hampered by high winds, a lack of water and the family’s long unpaved driveway.
Volunteers from several local fire companies, including Pottersville, Far Hills-Bedminster, Peapack-Gladstone, Bernardsville, Basking Ridge and Chester, responded to the fire.
Although the firefighters were able to keep the house from burning to the ground, it was rendered uninhabitable.
The exact cause of the fire was still under investigation by the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office as of presstime, but Cutler said investigators believe it may have been a candle in Carlie’s bedroom.
As Cutler searches for a temporary home for his family, he said he will take careful notice of the home’s layout.
“I will never, ever live in a house again without having an escape route,” he vowed.
In an effort to help the family, the Bedminster School PTO is seeking donations of gift cards and gift certificates from department stores and area restaurants.
“We just wanted to do something for them, because we know they’ll be needing so much,” explained PTO member Jill Del Santro, who is coordinating the effort.
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