“Selling The City” star Taylor Middleton has her dog to thank for quickly evacuating their New York City apartment building while it was on fire.
During an interview with FOX Business, Middleton explained that her building in Tribeca caught on fire shortly after her and her husband, Peter Scavo, went to sleep.
“I had actually gone to bed quite early that night and then my husband came to bed maybe an hour after me. We were fast asleep and our golden retriever, Mac, all of a sudden started barking ferociously. He’s not a barker. And so he woke us up. Clearly there was a problem,” the celebrity real estate agent said.
“We turned on the lights and there was just a cloud of smoke in our apartment. And at that point, the smoke alarms had not gone off yet. We knew that there was a pretty big problem. Clearly… There’s smoke completely taking over our office, in our kitchen,” Middleton continued.
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She explained that “before she knew it” the New York Fire Department was at their apartment building.
“We were fast asleep and our golden retriever, Mac, all of a sudden started barking ferociously.”
“They were very, very, very fast, thank God, and they seemed to be on it. So I just grabbed anything I could. I knew I only had a few minutes. And so I grabbed, you know, a laptop, chargers, passport, things like that, and then just got out of there,” Middleton said. “But it was freezing outside. It was absolutely freezing. And so that made it especially tricky, I think, for the firefighters and then for all of my neighbors.”
Middleton told FOX Business that prior to her apartment building catching on fire, her friend lost her home in the Palisades Fire that devastated the Los Angeles community.
WATCH:- ‘Selling The City’ star’s dog saved her from fire that ravaged NYC apartment building
Since this was on her mind prior to her home catching fire, she was mentally aware of the steps that should be taken when you need to quickly evacuate your home.
“One of my very best friends lost her home in the Pacific Palisades fire. Her whole community. Her whole neighborhood. So, I would never, ever try to compare that to that level of destruction and catastrophe there. It breaks my heart. That said, knowing that she had gone through this, it was, you know, mentally you run through in your mind, okay, ‘if I were in that situation, what would I do?’”
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“All of the most important documents and everything. So I knew I had maybe five minutes. So I just went through to grab chargers. I went through to grab any kind of legal documents that we had, marriage certificates, things like that. Passports. I was asleep. So, quite frankly, like, my brain was pretty foggy,” Middleton said.
“I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just grabbed whatever I could to be able to show up for work the next day. We didn’t have time to grab things that were special to us or anything like that. It was just about remaining connected to life.”
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The residents of Middleton’s apartment building were given the okay to go back into their building a few hours after the fire started. Middleton and Scavo opted not to return, which ended up being a blessing since the fire reignited.
“I didn’t think it was safe to go back into the building. Even like the air quality. And so a lot of people went back into the building, and I’m told it was maybe 45 minutes to an hour and then the fire had reignited. What we’re told is that it was in the support beams of the second floor apartment. And so, you know, these things happen.”
“But the FDNY really was amazing. And before we knew it, I think that they were fighting the fire for over four hours. You know, there were two firefighters who were injured. It was really something,” Middleton said.
Middleton recognized that the fire she recently experienced was nowhere near the devastation that occurred in California.
WATCH: ‘Selling the City’ star’s apartment building has been deemed ‘uninhabitable’
“We have the privilege and the ability to go back into the building to try to remediate certain things,” she explained.
Middleton shared that her apartment building had been deemed uninhabitable by the Department of Health and the Department of Buildings, and the residents were told it would be between four and six months before they could return to their homes.
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“Being in real estate and knowing how permits work, I think it will probably be longer, but we are able to go back in by appointment to try to salvage certain things,” she said.
Since Middleton is involved in the real estate market nationwide, she has heard some “rumblings” that some people affected by the LA fires are leaving California.
“Honestly, I know that my friends who live in California are going to stay there because they love it so, so much. But of course, I’ve heard rumblings about people leaving,” she said. “I know for myself. You know, with our building fire. I think it may change day to day. There may be a range of emotions depending on where you are in the process.”
Middleton, who was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, moved to Manhattan after graduating from Vanderbilt University. Since launching her career in 2013, Middleton, who is starring in Netflix’s new reality series “Selling the City,” has closed over $500 million in luxury real estate sales.
WATCH: Taylor Middleton has heard ‘rumblings’ of LA residents leaving the city following the fires
“Selling the City” is a New York City-based spin-off of Netflix’s mega-hit show “Selling Sunset.” The series follows both the professional and personal lives of the ambitious realtors at the Manhattan branch of the firm Douglas Elliman as they “navigate the cutthroat world of luxury real estate in New York City,” per the streaming network.
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In addition to Middleton, the “Selling the City” cast consists of seven other Douglas Elliman real estate agents, including team leader Eleonara Srugo. Srugo, who has drawn comparisons to “Selling Sunset” patriarch Jason Oppenheim, executed Douglas Elliman’s biggest real estate deal of 2023 after selling a $75 million listing.
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