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Sharon Fire saves the day - and Thanksgiving - after dinner goes up in flames

SHARON, Mass. — A family's Thanksgiving turkey went up in flames and a firefighter took it upon himself to save the holiday for a family in Sharon with the help of a local restaurant.

The Brass family had to call 911, not once, but twice this Thanksgiving. But instead of a ruined dinner, they ended up with more food than they ended up knowing what to do with and even more reasons to be grateful.

"This is usually the busiest time of the year you're going to get a kitchen fire," said Brian Armstrong, a Sharon firefighter.

It was almost a Thanksgiving disaster.

"It was very stressful, my wife freaking out, panicking, yelling, crying, screaming, yelling, saying, 'call 911,'" said Mark Brass.

Not long after the brass family put the turkey in the oven Thursday, there were flames.

"We showed up, she had already shut the door, the fire was out," said Christopher Cirillo, of Sharon Fire.

"We helped clean out the grease from the stove before we left," said Lt. Bill Morrissey of Sharon Fire. "And they said they were going to try and turn the oven back on and cook the turkey, and we said okay no problem. And we got around the block and they said it was on fire again,"

Related: Boston's homeless find Thanksgiving meal at Pine Street Inn

But this time there was no starting over. The pan the turkey was in had a hole in it and there was a lot of grease in the oven. The firefighters told the brass family that it wasn't safe to try again.

But Cirillo wasn't going to let their Thanksgiving be ruined.

"She had people coming over for Thanksgiving and I just felt a little bad that she didn't have anything to serve the family," he said. "So we called a couple restaurants, and the Sky restaurant in Norwood was open. I talked to Leann Green the manager, and they donated the food for her."

"They called and said, 'would you like a turkey dinner?' and we said okay," Susan Brass said. "And seven of them showed up with a huge meal including apple pie."

The firefighters of group four in Sharon were just about to sit down to their own Thanksgiving meal when the calls came in. But they didn't seem to mind.

"We're real grateful for Chris," Armstrong said. "You know it was real nice of him to search for a turkey for them."

"It feels great to help anybody in the town that need [it]," said Ryan Malcomson of Sharon Fire. "They didn't have turkey on Thanksgiving. Everyone needs turkey on Thanksgiving."

The Brass family says they will remember the act of kindness every Thanksgiving from now on as another reason to be grateful.

"I was touched, very pleased that there are wonderful people in the world not only that do their job but that care about people in the world and want to make sure that they have a nice Thanksgiving with their family," said Mark Brass.

They heated up their meal and all ate together. They're all still working their 25-hour shift and say that, if you have a cooking incident, the best thing to do is what the Brass family did and keep the oven closed.