NORTH ATTLEBORO - Alert neighbors and public safety workers first on the scene are being credited with saving the lives of a mother and her two daughters early Saturday morning after their Kelley Boulevard home filled with dangerous levels of carbon moxoxide while they slept.

Cheryl Lako of 142 Kelley Blvd. was sleeping with her window open, and was awakened by a headache and the smell of oily smoke just before 2 a.m.

"I thought it was actually our house. I could smell soot and looked around the house," Lako said. She woke up her husband, Paul, and he checked the house's furnace.

"I thought maybe it was a truck idling on the highway, and went out in the back yard and saw a plume of white smoke coming out the chimney" of the neighbor's house at 140 Kelley Blvd., Cheryl Lako added.

Her husband, who recently retired after a long career at The Sun Chronicle, called the fire department, and Cheryl Lako started ringing her neighbor's doorbell and banging on the door until she said her hand hurt. There was a car in the driveway and air conditioners on. Firefighters Jeff McCall and Rob Gaulin drove up on a fire engine from the nearby Kelley Boulevard fire station and, along with Patrolman Denis Donovan, forced open a rear sliding door.

"They went into the house and found the mother, Judi Bravetti, and two children sound asleep," Fire Capt. Ron Meyer said. "Because of their actions starting with their neighbor, it is my belief they saved their lives."

Complaining of headaches and dizziness, the three occupants of the home were taken to Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, for evaluation. One of the daughters is a sophomore in high school, the other an eighth-grader.

High levels of carbon monoxide and cyanide were detected in the home later by firefighters, and the house was vented. The fumes were traced to a backfiring oil burner, Meyer said.

Meyer stresses the importance of having working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors on each living level of a home as required by law, and properly maintaining furnaces. The home had no working detectors, the captain said.

"We were just fortunate the wind was blowing this way," Cheryl Lako said.

STEPHEN PETERSON can be reached at 508-236-0377 or at speterson@thesunchronicle.com.