Cox proposed to his girlfriend on her birthday. Sweet, right? Then he set about making her breakfast. Even sweeter. But everything changed when he went to go check on on his crying son in the other room.
In the morning’s excitement, Cox forgot it’s probably not a good idea to leave things on the stove unattended.
"I had just put the grease on the stove, I went to check on him, it took about a minute, but when I got back the cabinets were on fire," Cox said. "I threw the pot of grease out of the window to try to put it out. I was so confused, I forgot to grab the fire extinguisher that was right there when you enter the kitchen."
Millville Fire Chief Kurt Hess said firefighters were sent to the home at 10:15 AM but were unable to get the flames under control until 1PM. Though the the blaze is still under investigation, Hess believes it was, indeed, a kitchen fire, the South Jersey Times reported.
Cox explained that, when the blaze began, he rushed to get his family and their dog out of the house.
"I tried to put it out but once I breathed the smoke in I knew it was too much for me," he said.
Firefighters had to to close off a portion of the street while fighting the fire in the freezing cold.
"You never get cold when you're fighting fire," the chief said afterward, with icicles hanging from his helmet.
But "anytime you have wind, it always makes it that much tougher," he added.
The building’s second and third floors were seriously damaged in the fire, as was a neighboring home.
It is unclear whether the couple has set a date for their wedding.
