A Wallace Road man had to jump from the roof of his burning home early Sunday morning to escape to safety.

While the man was spared any major injuries, firefighters hoped that some very important safety lessons could be taught as a result of the incident, chief among them the importance of having more than one smoke detector in your home.

Goucher-White Plains Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jimmy Lamb said the fire broke out at 160 Wallace Road early Sunday. Firefighters were dispatched at 5:03 a.m. after homeowner Scott Mathis escaped from his home and called emergency personnel on his cell phone.

Lamb said Mathis was home alone when the fire broke out and awoke to smoke and the sound of a downstairs smoke detector going off. Lamb said Mathis’ path downstairs was blocked by fire and he had to climb out of his second-floor bedroom window onto a roof and jump to safety.

“Mr. Mathis told me that he tried to call 9-1-1 from his cell phone while he was still inside but was unable to speak due to the smoke,” Lamb said.

Mathis was able to relay his situation and location once he got outside of the home.

Firefighters from three fire departments including Goucher-White Plains, Macedonia and Cowpens responded to the scene and were able to quickly extinguish the blaze. But Lamb said interior damage was significant.

“It’s not a total loss but they’re going to have a lot of work,” the chief said.

Mathis was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and a possible knee injury.

The area of origin for the fire was believed to be an air handling unit in the basement, Lamb said.

While no one was seriously injured, Lamb said the situation raised important safety issues that could be valuable to others.

The smoke detector in Mathis’ home was located on the lower level.

Lamb said it’s advisable that you have a working smoke detector on all levels of your home.

“Most often, people do not smell smoke when they are asleep and it usually will not wake you,” Lamb said. “A smoke detector may give you the advanced warning you need to survive.”

Secondly, Mathis called emergency personnel on a cell phone instead of a land line and was successful in getting emergency personnel to respond. But a land line would have told emergency dispatchers the location of a call, even if the caller is unable to talk.

“Many people turn off their home phone to save money, but in this particular case, if Mr. Mathis had been unable to speak when he called on his cell phone, dispatchers may not have known where to send help and probably wouldn’t have even known there was a fire until it was too late,” Lamb said.

Thirdly, the early Sunday morning fire showed the importance of knowing your escape routes in case of fire.

“In this case, the resident was unable to get down the stairway, so knowing that he could get out the second floor window onto the lower level roof is what saved his life,” Lamb said.