A smoke alarm most likely saved a Napa man from serious injuries in a fire on Wednesday morning.

Around 9:30 a.m., Wednesday the fire call came in of a structure fire in the 3200 block of Barry Avenue, off West Imola Avenue.

The man inside the house was sleeping on the couch in the area where the fire started. The smoke alarm woke him up and he was able to make it to the front door, fire officials said.

The house was charged with smoke by the time he was awaken by the smoke detector, said firefighters who were at scene.

About that time, the man’s wife and a friend arrived at the scene and pulled him from the house, Napa Fire Battalion Chief John Callanan said. “They used a garden hose to put out the fire in the couch, which was smoldering when we got there. The man who was inside the house when the fire started had problems walking.”

This fire comes on the heels of a four-fatality blaze early Monday morning on Vale Street in the Alta Vista district of Napa.

In that fire, Aurora Castanon, 58, her two grandsons, Matthew, 12, Giovanni, 4, and her longtime boyfriend Timo Torres, 37, were found unconscious in the bedroom of the house, which is adjacent to the living room where the fire started. All but Matthew were pronounced dead at the scene. He was taken to Queen of the Valley Medical Center where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.

Fire investigators found a smoke detector in Castanon’s home. It has not been determined if it was working properly when the fire broke out.

Fire officials believe if the smoke detector was working properly it would have given the victims a much better chance to escape the fire.

“I am totally convinced that smoke detectors save lives,” said Napa Fire Capt. Sharon Quick.

In new construction, smoke detectors are required in every bedroom and in all hallways. In older structures, the fire department recommends a smoke detector in every level of the home and in each bedroom.

Equipping your home with a smoke detector is not enough. Residents have to make sure they are working and batteries are not dead.

The tragic news of Monday’s fatal fire spread quickly throughout the Napa community.

Many residents took to heart the fact that a properly working smoke detector could have made an impact on whether the Vale Street victims would have survived.

Dick Clark, owner of Ace Hardware Zellers in downtown Napa said since the fatal fire was reported in the Register, there has been an increase on the sale of smoke detectors.

“We have sold between 30 to 40 smoke detectors since Monday. However, we have sold more batteries that are used in them,” Clark said.

“When something tragic like this happens, everyone wants to make sure they are safe from something like that happening to them,” he said.

Clark said the same thing happened in January 1999 when a mother, her 2-year-old daughter and 5-week-old nephew lost their lives in a house fire on Yajome Street, near downtown Napa.

“People were pouring in here to buy smoke alarms. The same thing happened when the earthquake hit Napa in 2000,” Clark said.

“If the purchase of a smoke detector puts a financial burden on you, you can contact the fire department for a free smoke detector, which we will install at no charge,” Napa Fire Battalion Chief John Callanan said.

The city’s fire department smoke detector program started in 1989, Callanan said. “Since then we have installed more than 1,000 smoke detectors.”

Callanan said Central Valley Builders and Home Depot in Napa have donated or sold at cost the smoke detectors to the fire department. “Kidde and First Alert, manufactures of smoke detectors have also donated.”