Bob Tucker, ADT Chief Storyteller
I was honored to recently host an ADT LifeSaver celebration in Joplin, Mo., where an ADT emergency dispatcher met the family she helped save from a raging house fire.
One night last year, fierce flames and thick smoke filled the home of Joe and Amanda Whitlock. Riveting security video shows the couple’s five-year-old daughter asleep on a couch and then being jarred awake as the ADT smoke alarm activated. She safely escaped the burning house with four other kids.
Joe and Amanda were visiting a neighbor when ADT called to alert them to the fire. Rushing back home, they were relieved to see their kids safe and unharmed.
“I hugged them, kissed them and thanked God they were protected,” Amanda said. “Without the connected smoke detector, they likely wouldn’t have known about the fire until it was too late.”
Amanda also hugged ADT dispatcher Heather Madonia who travelled to Missouri to meet the family and to receive an ADT LifeSaver Award for calling 911 and verifying the fire.
“This is the highlight of my ten-year career at ADT,” exclaimed Heather who works overnight and handles up to 150 alarms each shift. “I could tell something was terribly wrong inside the Whitlock house because I was getting multiple alarm signals.”
ADT donated $5,000 each to the Joplin Fire and Police Departments for their quick response which, not only helped save lives, but prevented the Whitlock’s historic house, built by one of Joplin’s founders, from burning to the ground.