CONWAY, Pa. -- Losing a home to a fire is devastating any time of year. But the pain is especially poignant when it happens on Christmas Eve. But for one Beaver County family, the silver lining of a terrible tragedy came in the form of a vigilant police officer, whose quick thinking kept the loss of their home from becoming a deadly event.

There is not much left to salvage at the house on First Avenue in Conway.

"I mean it is Christmas even, there is nothing else to say, it is ruined," said Melinda Novak.

Novak arrived at the scene of the fire on Tuesday night, and saw her two aunts and two cousins being rushed from the burning home by a police officer.

"I came down, he was bringing them out, and got them all the way out before the roof even went up," Novak said.

Lesstsdale Chief of Police Shawn Fleming had been on patrol in Conway, where he is a part-time police officer, when he saw the smoke while making his rounds on Route 65.

"I noticed a pretty heavy amount of smoke coming off from the hillside from a residential area. At that point I went up to investigate a little further," Fleming said.

When he got to the house, Fleming not only spotted smoke, but flames in the attic. So he began pounding on the door.

"A lady answered…I believe I woke her up at the time. I had to tell her a couple of times. She didn't understand when I told her the house was on fire. She was in shock," Fleming said.

Fleming got the four people, plus two dogs, out of the home before it went up in smoke.

"And then, within maybe ten minutes of that it was, somebody would have died, it was an inferno. The whole things was up," said Novak.

Novak said her aunts are staying down the street in Conway, with her mother. She also said they were happy they were able to locate their pills in the ruins, because two women have medical conditions.

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