Family smelled smoke but detectors didn’t go off. There was a reason for that.

A family of four could smell smoke in a house early Tuesday but couldn't find flames, and the smoke detectors didn't go off.

Lexington firefighters used a thermal imaging camera to solve the mystery, according to Maj. Maria Roberts, and found heat above the kitchen in the attic. They pulled the ceiling in the area and found smoldering insulation.

There was a reason the smoke detectors didn't go off, Roberts said.

“There were working smoke detectors in the main part of the house,” she said. “With all or the majority of the smoke being in the attic, there was no smoke in the house to set it off.”

The two adults and two children in the home escaped safely, Roberts said.

Roberts said the smoke probably came from an electrical problem.

The stretch of Eastland Parkway reopened at 8:15 a.m.

This story was originally published September 19, 2017 at 9:56 AM with the headline "Family smelled smoke but detectors didn’t go off. There was a reason for that.."