MONMOUTH — Gustavo Duran and his son Michael are thankful to be alive after escaping unscathed from a fire that destroyed their Pleasant Street home early Tuesday morning.

The two men were asleep on the couch in their living room when the fire broke out. A blanket draped over a doorway to keep in the heat was ignited by a burning fireplace ember.

“Somebody was looking out for us,” Duran said Tuesday as he stood across the street from the charred remains of his home.

“I saw a flash and opened my eyes and saw flames going up to the ceiling. We tried to get out the front door, but it was jammed. I couldn’t open it. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Then my son came and shoved it open.” He said they never use the front door.

“We were so close to dying,” he said.

Duran, who lives in Chelsea, Mass., where he owns a nightclub and restaurant, was in town with his son to repair the front steps of the house at 7 Pleasant St. His pickup truck parked next door behind Monmouth General Store was full of lumber.

Duran said he bought the Pleasant Street property eight years ago and planned to move in permanently and open a business in the area.

On their way up from Massachusetts on Monday, they stopped at a store and bought firewood to burn in the fireplace. They didn’t turn on the house’s furnace.

He said they arrived about 10 p.m., built a fire, and settled in for the night.

Monmouth Fire Chief Dan Roy Jr., whose crew was the first to arrive, said the emergency call came in just after midnight. Roy said there was heavy fire at the front of the building on the first floor.

Duran, 53, said he stopped his son from attempting to put out the fire and instead looked for a way out of the burning building.

“He tried to put it out and I said, ‘Don’t,'” Duran said. “There was already black smoke and flames.”

Roy said they were heating the room with the fireplace as well as an electric space heater. When his unit arrived, Duran and his 26-year-old son were standing in the street. Both had made it out safe without injuries.

Roy said about 60 firefighters from Monmouth, Greene, Leeds, Winthrop and Wales fought the blaze for four and a half hours.

A large garage and storage shed connected to the house with a breezeway were saved.

He said firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to those buildings, but it was difficult because of the balloon-frame construction in which a continuous stud is used for framing from the ground level to the roof. Roy said there was no firewall between floors, which allows fires to spread rapidly through the open void spaces in the wall.

“It was quite a substantial-sized structure,” Roy said of the three-story home. “We were there a total of four and a half hours, but we had the fire under control within an hour.”

Several hot spots took time to locate and extinguish, Roy said.

Duran said he has homeowners’ insurance and planned to meet with the adjuster later Tuesday. Duran said he also planned to have a contractor board up the windows and doors.

“If I can repair it, I’d like to save the house. It’s such a beautiful, Victorian home,” Duran said. “When we first bought the home I was looking to purchase Monmouth Market and I looked into a few other places on Route 202. I may still consider that.”

Mechele Cooper — 621-5663

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