SHARON — George Akroyd recalls awaking to his fiancee’s screams.
It was 4:30 a.m. Sunday and their apartment was dark, but April Melendy knew something was terribly wrong.
“Fire! Fire!” she screamed, the 28-year-old Akroyd said in a telephone interview on Monday.
The couple rushed down the hall of their second-story Sharon apartment to their young son’s room, who lay awake in his bed.
His room was filled with smoke, and the living room and kitchen were on fire, making the toddler’s bedroom window the family’s only option for an exit, said Akroyd, who also goes by Sonny.
He picked up 3½-year-old George Akroyd and lowered him out the second-story window to a neighbor down below. Hesitant to jump, Akroyd grabbed Melendy, 26, and helped her out the window before he jumped to the ground below.
Melendy suffered smoke inhalation and a fractured vertebrae in her lower back; Akroyd also sustained smoke inhalation and minor burns and bruises, he said. Their son was uninjured.
They all were transported via ambulance to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where Melendy remained hospitalized on Monday morning but was slated to soon be released.
“A couple minutes later and I don’t think we would have made it,” Akroyd said. “If she wouldn’t have woken up … we wouldn’t have been so fortunate.”
The couple rented the apartment at 1171 Quimby Mountain Road for about three years; they didn’t have renters insurance.
There were three units in the building, and all were occupied at the time of the fire, Vermont State Police said in a news release. The two others were on the first floor.
John Young and Katie True, who lived in one of the other units, and Joseph Decoteau and Vincent Constable, who lived in the other, all made it out uninjured, the release said. Attempts to reach them on Monday were unsuccessful.
State fire officials are still investigating the cause of the blaze, Detective Sgt. Michael LaCourse said on Monday.
The Sharon Fire Department responded before dawn for the reported structure fire, and arrived to find the second-story porch engulfed in flames and the fire spreading into the structure, which sustained “extensive” fire damage, the release said.
The fire, which officials believe started in the area of Akroyd and Melendy’s porch, doesn’t appear to be suspicious, according to the release. Anyone with information about the fire is asked to call Vermont State Police.
The building is owned by George Robinson, the release states. There were smoke detectors installed in all three apartments; Akroyd doesn’t remember them sounding.
Since the fire, the outpouring of support Akroyd said his family has received has been “humbling” and has eased the stress associated with losing all of their belongings.
Akroyd and his son went shopping in West Lebanon on Monday for a few necessities as they awaited Melendy’s release from the hospital.
The couple are both Upper Valley natives and have family in the area; Akroyd had stayed at a Lebanon hotel until a permanent plan could be put in place.
Akroyd said he couldn’t help but think about all of the pictures that were lost in the fire. With that said, “I don’t care about the materialistic things,” he said. “I am just happy to see my boy happy and my (future) wife safe. We are all together. That’s all that matters.”
He said he hopes this event can serve as a reminder for people to “not take things for granted and to appreciate the little things.
“Because in the blink of an eye,” he said, “you could lose it all.”
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.