Five Oaks Neighbors Honor Cooke Family for Fire Rescue

Five Oaks Road residents threw a party of sorts for their neighborhood's three heroes, Erin, Maggie and Gracie Cooke, a few days after the family spotted a house fire and rushed to warn the people inside.

“We’re just gathered here to celebrate their rescue efforts,” Charlie Kraiger said. Charlie and his wife, Lesli, welcomed the others into their home Friday afternoon with a cake, balloons and refreshments. The community felt blessed to see their neighbors, Jody Beshara, her husband, and their cat, Samantha, in good health and unharmed from the fire.

The Cooke family was driving home from CYOB basketball practice at Mosby Woods Elementary School Tuesday night when Maggie looked up and said, “Mommy the house is on fire.” Maggie is just 10 years old and her sister Gracie is proudly five “and nine quarters.”

Happenstance put them in the right place at the right time.

“It was exciting, mommy, but not in a good way,” Maggie said.

The Cookes' quick thinking helped another family to safety.

“It was just along the roof line, you could just see sparks through the trees,” Erin said. “So I drove over and told Maggie to call 9-1-1 and I went and banged on the door. A man came to the door and he said ‘Oh no no no, I just have a fire in the fireplace,’ so we went to the back porch and they did have a fire in the fireplace... but there was a fire starting just right along the back corner of their roof line.”

Beshara was all smiles at the Kraiger home.

“I was sitting down to watch NCIS at 8 o'clock that night,” Beshara said. “And some lady rang my doorbell like a crazy person, and I’m thankful that she did. She said ‘your house is on fire!’ and we went out to the deck and surely enough the roof was ablaze.”

Firefighters said the fire started after a spark jumped from the chimney to a corner of the attic of their home.

Click the thumbnails to the right to see a photo and video of the fire courtesy of Lesli Kraiger.