It was 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Jeff Cooper had just returned to the station with his fellow Lake Station volunteer firefighters after battling a house fire for seven hours.
Before they could clean up, dispatchers reported another house fire. For Cooper, the address sounded all too familiar.
"It took me a minute to register, and then it hit me. I said, 'That's my house, guys,' " he said.
When firefighters arrived at the Arizona Street home, Cooper felt a surge of terror.
"I couldn't see my wife or my kids. All I saw was smoke," he said.
Then, police who arrived first told him his family was fine -- and that his 4- and 6-year-old sons saved the day.
The family can't stay at home for at least a month while repairs are made. The fire started in the furnace and left a 1-by-2-foot hole in the living room floor. It also charred the walls and ruined their furniture, clothes and Christmas decorations.
The Coopers, who rent the home, don't have renter's insurance. The Red Cross paid for their first two nights in a hotel, but the family will be on their own after that. Cooper and his wife don't have family around here.
But those worries were secondary as Cooper recounted his sons' quick thinking the night of the fire.
Bobby, 4, smelled smoke and woke his mother, Sandy, who had taken sleeping pills for insomnia.
"If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be here because I wouldn't have woken up," Sandy said.
Bobby's actions were even more important because the home doesn't have a smoke detector, Cooper said. The landlord bought one but hadn't installed it yet.
"I take part responsibility on that, especially being a firefighter myself," Cooper said.
"(Bobby) is my hero. For him to be so calm and wake his mother up, that's textbook."
His other son, 6-year-old Jeffery, called 911.
"I don't know how most kids are, but I'd think they'd panic when they saw flames shooting out of the floor," Cooper said.
As the family surveyed the damage Wednesday afternoon, the Christmas tree lay mangled on the floor, amid clumps of ornaments and silver garland.
Cooper wondered what the holidays will be like for his children.
His landlord's insurance company will pay for the house damages, but the Coopers have to replace their personal belongings. His wife doesn't work due to health problems, and Cooper doesn't have a steady job.
"I just want my boys to have a Christmas," he said.
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