SHANNAN BOWEN
Associated Press

WILMINGTON, N.C. - As she packed up salvaged belongings from her charred apartment unit, Michelle Beacham choked back tears while talking about the strange voice that woke her up early on a recent morning telling her to get out of the burning building.

It was a sheriff's deputy who happened to see the fire at the unit in Meridian Village Apartments while out on a routine patrol of the area.

Deputy Chris Roseblock of the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office said he and Deputy Joshua Bryant were riding in their patrol car at about 4:30 a.m. when they spotted flames leaping from the apartment building in northern New Hanover County.

Roseblock said he and Bryant saw a lady running down the stairs who said a family with a small child was inside one of the units. The deputies kicked down the door to get inside, then pulled the sleeping occupants out of their beds, Roseblock said.

Beacham, 23, said she, her boyfriend, their 14-month old daughter and two friends were inside the apartment.

"I just heard the police saying my apartment was on fire," she said. When she became alert she saw fire on the back porch and through vents in the ceiling, Beacham said.

No one required medical treatment, but Beacham said she doesn't think that would have been the case if the deputies weren't around.

"I just really want to thank that police officer," she said.

Beacham, who has lived in her apartment since July, said the unit was equipped with smoke detectors, but that they didn't go off when the fire broke out.

"I would really like to know why the alarms didn't sound, because if that police officer wasn't riding by, we wouldn't be here," she said.

In the case of a fatal fire in January at another apartment complex near the University of North Carolina Wilmington, alarms didn't sound because fire crept into the attic and disabled the apartment's smoke alarms.

Officials have not yet released the cause of this fire, and they have not said why the alarms didn't work.

The American Red Cross paid for Beacham and her family to stay three nights in a hotel and gave them funds for clothes and food. Another neighbor also donated some money for the family, Beacham said.

Family members and friends volunteered to help Beacham clean and pack salvaged items. She was able to save some clothes and photos, among other personal items. But several things, such as furniture in the living room, were destroyed by the fire.

Despite her losses, Beacham was thankful for her family's safety and for those who helped. She called the deputies heroes.

But Roseblock said he doesn't feel like one. He said he was just doing his job.

"We just happened to be driving through that area," he said.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.