Medford, Ore.– “I’m trying to be happy about a bad situation,” says Wayne Harley, the victim of an early morning house fire Tuesday.
It’s a situation that Harley says could have been tragic.
“The house is basically totaled,” he says.
A Vietnam Veteran he’s lived for two years in the Royal Oaks Mobil Manor in Medford.
“The house was filled with smoke.”
Just hours earlier around 2 A.M Tuesday, a fire broke out in the attic of the home, where Harley lives with his adult daughter who is disabled and recovering from lung surgery.
Harley says had this fire happened just four months ago he and his daughter would probably not have made it out alive.
Harley says, “I would probably been dead from the smoke inhalation.”
Up until recently, there were no smoke detectors in his house, that is until he took his mother’s advice to have one installed.
“I called Jackson County Fire Department and they installed one and that’s what set off the alert,” he says. “Mom always knows best, that’s right.”
Now Harley and his daughter are left to pick up the pieces, figuring out what’s next.
“We are kind of stuck homeless now for a little while and I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it.”
He is also offering a strong warning to others.
“Protect yourself with some smoke detectors. Get one immediately.”
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