MOULTRIE — Potential tragedy was averted when a smoke detector alerted two people of a fire at a Southwest Moultrie home early Friday morning.

The Moultrie Fire Department was called to 125 Sixth St. S.W. about 5:15 a.m. Friday about a small stove fire. When firefighters arrived, they found a Moultrie police officer had extinguished the fire using a dry powder extinguisher.

The fire, however, left the house filled with smoke, so firefighters ventilated it. There was fire damage to an electrical outlet behind the stove and the area above the outlet, heat damage to the wall and smoke damage throughout the house.

The house’s occupants, Lashondra Gamble, 30, and Tyrone Henry, 43, told fire officials they were awakened by the smoke detector and escaped without injury. The detector was installed at the house by the Moultrie Fire Department, and this is the second smoke detector save in 2008.

Moultrie Fire Department Fire Marshall Capt. Lavon Cooper said the department is concentrating its efforts for the detector program in Southwest Moultrie this year. The detector at this house had recently been checked by firefighters to make sure it was working properly.

This is the 16th detector save since the program was started here in 2002, Cooper said. The program is funded by a grant administered through the Georgia Department of Public Health.