WOMAN, 88, SAVED FROM FIRE; ATHLETE HELPS CARRY WOMAN FROM BUILDING

An 88-year-old woman was carried from her burning house by two passersby Sunday night, an action Acting Fire Chief Max Jauch said may have saved her life.

Ruby Stone, who lived downstairs in the frame house at 107 N. Park St., was treated and released at St. Francis Medical Center Sunday night.

Her upstairs neighbor, Walt Walker, 57, was not injured.

Walker said he heard a loud pop, then saw flames in the house's front window when he walked downstairs to investigate.

He went back upstairs to call the fire department, which responded at 6:09 p.m.

Stone, meanwhile, had retreated to the rear of the house to escape the fast-moving fire.

Joseph Orr, a member of the cross country and track teams at Southeast Missouri State University, was driving to his home a block away when he saw the flames in the front of Stone's house.

Orr and an unidentified man stopped at the same time they saw Walker exiting the house. They asked if anyone was still inside, and he told them a woman was.

"We both kicked in the front door," Orr said. "Smoke and fire came flying out, so we went around to the back."

Orr said they heard Stone yelling for help in the kitchen at the rear, but couldn't see her because of the smoke.

They located her by following the sound of her voice, Orr said. "She was crouched down, like she couldn't move. We tried to walk her out but couldn't. So we carried her out to the street."

The fire trucks arrived about that time, Orr said. Eleven firefighters and four engines responded.

Lt. Paul Breitenstein said the fire moved "unbelievably fast. We got the call as a basement fire. By the time we turned the corner of Independence, everything was just aglow with fire."

The cause of the blaze is not yet known. Breitenstein said Stone had called her son just before the fire broke out to say smoke was coming from her TV.

Stone's son told her to turn the TV off, but Breitenstein said the smoke had turned into flames by the time she hung up the phone.

Firefighters controlled the fire within a half hour and remained at the scene for about three hours.

Breitenstein called the house "a total loss."

The house immediately to the north sustained some scorching and a broken window due to the heat.

Walker, who had been a renter in the house for 25 years, works for the university's food service. He said almost everything he owns was lost in the fire.

Information for this story was contributed by Fred Lynch, Southeast Missourian photographer.