MERIDEN, Conn. -- A 14-year-old Meriden girl is being credited with saving her family from a burning building.

The Carabetta family was settling in for the night the week before Christmas and the day after a major renovation had been completed on their 17-year-old home.

Cristina Carabetta, 14, the oldest of five children, noticed a strange smell in the home around 11 p.m.

"We shut all the lights off, I logged off my computer, and I went to go check something and I smelled this really weird smell. It kind of smelled like rotten eggs or something," she said.

Cristina's mother smelled it as well, but thought it was the home's fireplace.

"I thought it was because it was the first time we ran it for the year," said Anna Carabetta. "We had just had it lit, and I just had everything cleaned before we lit it. My subconscious allowed me to believe that this was just an everyday thing and I never gave it a second thought."

Cristina said she was lying in bed and the smell continued to worsen.

"All of a sudden my TV goes off, but all my power goes, but it was just in my room," Cristina said.

Cristina woke her sleeping parents, alerting them that something was wrong.

"I'm waking them up, and my dad is like, 'No, no, the generator will kick in.' I was like, 'No, it's just my room,'" she said.

Cristina said she left her parents' room, but returned when the smell intensified.

"So I went back into my dad's room and I said, 'Look, there's really something wrong.' I was like, 'Just go downstairs and look.' So he got up and walked downstairs," Cristina said.

Joe Carabetta said when he arrived downstairs, he saw smoke in the bottom of the house.

"The fire was not under control, and it burned for hours," he said.

The fire, which begins inside the home's walls, destroyed the family's house. Although Kristina, her father and two firefighters needed medical attention, everyone survived the blaze -- something with Kristina is being credited with.

"If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be here today. If it weren't for her persistence and being so adamant about there being something wrong. Thank God she was awake, and insisted on my going downstairs, because otherwise, we probably wouldn't be talking to you," Joe Carabetta said.

Fire Chief Offers Tips For Preparing For Fire

Fire Chief James Trainor said families should make sure that all smoke detectors are functioning to avoid being trapped in a fire.

"You want to be aware of what the sound is of the smoke detectors. Some of the modern ones even speak to you," Trainor said. "The family should also do family fire drills, just like the kids do at school, to know what the exits are and how to get out. It's important that when they do come out, they meet someplace outside so they can gather the family together."

Trainor said that nobody should go back into a burning building to get something that was forgotten.

"Kids want to go back in and get their … game or doll or a dog or something like that. We always tell them, 'Don't go back in, experience shows us it's just too dangerous," he said.

Anna Carabetta said she wants to tell the story of her family's horrible night before Christmas so others can be prepared.

"What I want to do is put this fire on a video, and I want to present my video and talk about it in schools and any other community that I can help, make people aware of things like I wasn't aware of," she said.

More Information:

Link: Fire Safety Quiz

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