Elderly woman escapes house fire uninjured

By Mary Manning

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009 | 4 p.m.

An elderly woman escaped an upstairs bedroom fire in a two-story house in the northwest Las Vegas Valley this morning.

An upstairs bedroom was gutted and the roof over the bedroom window was damaged. The fire also left heavy smoke damage on the second floor, said Tim Szymanski, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Fire Department.

Firefighters arrived about 9:52 a.m. today to 8624 Water Bucket Ave., east of North El Capitan Way and north of Grand Teton Drive, to find fire starting to burn the roof, Szymanski said.

The elderly woman was in the burning room when the fire started. Another person at home at the time noticed smoke coming from the bedroom under the door, opened it and found the room full of smoke, Szymanski said. That person helped the woman leave the house, along with some pets, Szymanski said.

The rest of the family had gone to work or to school before the fire broke out. There were no injuries.

The cause of the fire in the house, built in 2003, could not be determined, Szymanski said. There were smoke alarms but no sprinklers, he said.

Four adults and four children lived in the home, he said. Damages are estimated at $120,000.