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LAYTON — Two Layton police officers helped a woman trapped in her burning house to safely escape from a second-floor window about 2:20 a.m. Sunday.
The 46-year-old woman called 911 to report she could smell and see smoke coming from the heat vents in the bedroom of her home at 1450 N. Church St. She also reported that her bedroom door was hot.
Layton Fire Department spokesman Doug Bitton said dispatchers instructed the woman to place a towel under the threshold of the bedroom door and move to the window.
The woman's first instinct was to open the window and jump, Bitton said. Once Layton police officers arrived, one officer forced open the house's front door but received no response to his call to assist the occupants. The officers then heard a woman's screams from the back of the house.
The officers assisted the woman out of the house, guiding her down a 6-foot ladder. She was treated for minor smoke inhalation at the scene.
The house received an estimated $90,000 in damage from the fire, which may have been caused by aging electrical wiring, Bitton said. The precise cause remains under investigation.
“The occupant thankfully was able to awake and do all the right actions and was instructed excellently by dispatchers. Nighttime fires with no working smoke alarms could have had a devastating loss of life here,” Bitton said.
"Quick actions by police and firefighters helped the end result be what it is — a life saved,” he said.
The woman, who was displaced from her home, was assisted by the Red Cross. No firefighters or police officers were injured.
“We can’t overstate this enough that each level of the home needs operational smoke alarms, and (we) recommend them in every sleeping room," Bitton said.
