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Right place, right time: W&M athletes help snuff out house fire during round of golf

There are coincidences and incidents of fortuitous timing, and there is the tale of George Krieger's house and William and Mary's firefighting foursome.

A random Friday morning round of golf among four Tribe athletes launched a series of implausible events in which chance built on coincidence, which piggybacked on luck and further coincidence.

As a result, Krieger's house sustained minimal damage, and an already beneficial relationship between him and William and Mary's athletic department deepened a bit.

"It's a pretty amazing story," Krieger said. "What are the chances that those four guys would just happen to be playing a round of golf near my house when a fire breaks out, and then be able to help put it out?"

W&M soccer players Chris Perez and Andy Hinnant and basketball players Kyle Gaillard and Fred Heldring were in the midst of a round at Ford's Colony's Blackheath course the morning of March 21.

The foursome was on the par-5 fourth hole, and Perez searched for his ball in the right rough, when they noticed smoke rising from a backyard across the fairway. They thought it was from a grill. A minute later, the smoke was thicker and blacker.

"At that point, I thought somebody's not minding the grill and they're burning the chicken," Perez said. "We thought we should go over and take a look."

As they got closer, they saw flames rising from a gas grill on a small deck area near the house. They saw no sign of people outside and immediately divided up duties. Hinnant hustled back across the fairway to the carts, where he called 911 from his cell phone.

Perez saw two dogs inside the house through the backdoor. Finding the door locked, he attempted to kick his way in. Heldring went around to the front of the house, where he found the front door open. He went in and found the house empty, except for the dogs.

In the meantime, Gaillard found a garden hose nearby and began spraying down the flames, which had begun to scorch the side of the house and reached the second floor at their most intense.

"Everything was completely spur of the moment," Perez said. "I don't know if we had time to sit down and draw up a plan, we would have done anything differently."

Within minutes, several neighbors showed up, after calling 911. Ford's Colony security personnel arrived, followed by the Williamsburg/James City County Fire Department. Local security brought fire extinguishers that were able to snuff out the last of the flames, Perez said, though Gaillard's work with the hose did much of the work.

Perez estimated the entire ordeal lasted maybe an hour, between dealing with the fire and talking to fire and police officials afterward. They trudged back across the fourth fairway and resumed their round, unaware whose house they had saved.

"We didn't really take time to look at photos in the house," Perez said. "It was kind of frantic."

Krieger and his wife were in Florida visiting friends while he made a few business contacts. Their son, Brian, was staying at the house, but had gone into Williamsburg for a meeting.

George Krieger was on his way from Clearwater to Bradenton when his cell phone rang, and the voice at the other end said, "This is James City County dispatch."

"I thought to myself," Krieger said, "whatever they say next is not going to be good."

The dispatcher told him that there had been a fire at his house, the deck had burned and there was damage to the house. He feared the worst, but learned that it wasn't the large deck on the back of the house, but the smaller deck where the gas grill sat. Fire officials determined that the gas line running from the house to the grill had a leak, which led to the fire.

"There's no good place for a fire," Krieger said, "but it could have been a lot worse."

Krieger and his wife bought the home eight years ago, but moved there full-time in January 2013. He is a former TV executive with Fox Sports — he helped shepherd the network's NFL coverage — and currently runs a media consulting business.

He took an interest in William and Mary athletics and serves as a volunteer consultant to the department in areas of live-streaming and broadcasting. He voluntarily directed broadcasting for Tribe men's basketball last season and has met repeatedly with department officials on ways to broaden the department's reach.

When Krieger returned from Florida, he was told that four young guys playing golf had helped put out the fire. He wanted to know who they were so he could thank them.

He learned that they were William and Mary athletes. He knew of Gaillard and Heldring from the Tribe's basketball season. He had met Perez's father on a golf outing with former W&M soccer coach and athletic fundraiser Al Albert, and he personally advised Chris on assembling a resume and job-seeking strategies last fall.

Krieger said that he emailed Perez and wrote: Thanks, you saved my house.

"I didn't know if he was joking, so I called him," Perez said. "It was already a crazy story. That made it even crazier."

Krieger doesn't have an estimate on damages yet, but he said an insurance adjuster told him that had the fire gone unattended just another 15-20 minutes, it could have spread into the basement and crawl space, where there was plenty of wood and fresh fuel.

"I thank all my neighbors and I'm extremely grateful to those four guys," Krieger said. "They were all Johnnies on the spot."


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