Fire sparks generosity.

Back on the night of December 4, 2005, Joel and Carol Berg of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, were awakened by an aerosol can exploding. They were shocked to learn that their house was on fire. Joel, Carol, their son Duncan, and their dog Smokie made it outside, but they feared for their 23-year-old son Matt, who was trapped by flames in an attached 12'x12' bedroom.

"We didn't know if Matt was in his room," Joel told the Chippewa Herald.

As Joel climbed up a ladder to Matt's window, he heard sirens in the distance. Unbeknownst to him, Matt, who was trapped inside, had already called 911.

Firefighters soon arrived, and climbed to Matt's second-story bedroom, which was embroiled in intense flames. They used a thermal-imaging device to find Matt, who was lying unconscious on his bedroom floor. Firefighters Jason Thom and Joel Przybylski risked their lives to enter the raging inferno; they pulled Matt to the window, and handed him over to Battalion Chief Jon Taylor and a Chippewa Falls police officer.

Almost immediately after the rescue, the fire resulted in an explosion. "About a minute later there was a tremendous flash," recalled Joel Berg.

An investigation later revealed a freakish cause of the fire: Matt had heated marbles in a sock in his microwave to fashion a type of heating pad, and before he went to sleep he laid the sock on the floor, where it set fire to his room.

Though gratified that the lives of their family had been spared, the Bergs faced the difficult prospect of rebuilding their home. Almost immediately, the community pitched in.