Firefighters say a home in the Mid-Ohio Valley Tuesday was just minutes away from becoming a total loss.

The cause of the blaze is something firefighters say is pretty common,but can easily be prevented.

"We were only gone an hour and the whole place was full of smoke," Olivia Bays, who noticed the smoke, said.

When Bays walked into her in-laws home in Vincent, Ohio, and could barely see through the smoke, she immediately called 9-1-1.

"I was really scared that something really bad was gonna happen," she said.

And according to firefighters, that was almost the case.

"The people are very very lucky. They were within minutes of probably having a pretty good fire in this house," Barlow Volunteer Fire Department's Assistant Chief Greg Fisher, said.

Chief Fisher said it all started in the basement when the furnace caught fire. Fortunately they arrived just in time to shut the furnace down and put the fire out.
But Chief fisher said this is a common problem that doesn't always have such a fortunate outcome.

"They could have lost the whole house. Furnace fires do cause a number of structure fires and residentials, and it's something people really need to keep an eye on," he said.

Chief Fisher recommends having your furnace checked at least once a year, and after this experience, Bays plans on taking that even further.

"If they said once a year, probably every six months," Bays said.

Firefighters say you should contact anyone who works with heating ventilation to check your furnace.