Neighbors can be a good thing.  When your neighbors are volunteer firefighters that is a very good thing.

            Around 10:55 p.m. on Tuesday, Pennsburg volunteer firefighter Gerry Ward went outside his home on Miranda Terrace in Upper Hanover Township to move his car into his garage. 

            When he got outside, he noticed a fire coming from his neighbor's garage in

Firefighters check to insure that the fire didn't s spread further into the house on Miranda Terrace in Upper Uanove Township.

the 2000 block of Miranda Terrace.

            He immediately went to his neighbor's house and alerted them to the impending danger.  According to Pennsburg Fire Chief Phil Zirkelbach, two adults and two children live in the home.

            After rousing his neighbors and making sure they were safe and that a call was made to 911, Ward headed to the Pennsburg fire station to respond with the trucks.

            After the dispatch, another neighbor, Joe Sink, who is Deputy Chief of the Milford Township Fire Company, immediately went to the nearby fire location and reported that there was "fire showing" at the house.  Sink used a fire extinguisher to "get a knock on the fire" but reported that firefighters would still be needed to check for any extension of the fire into other areas of the building.

            "Thank God Gerry was going to move his car and saw the fire and alerted the family… this could have been a tragedy," Zirkelbach said.

            The fire and resultant damage were confined to the garage and the immediate floor above it.  There were no injuries reported and no damage estimate was available.

            In addition to Pennsburg Fire Company, volunteers were dispatched from East Greenville, Green Lane, and Red Hill Fire Companies in Montgomery County; and Milford Township and Quakertown Fire Companies from Bucks County.

            An emergency medical services unit from the Upper Perkiomen Valley Ambulance Association was also dispatched to the scene.

            All units cleared the scene by 1:10 a.m.