Five police officers rushed into a smoke-filled house Thursday and rescued an elderly woman who had become trapped in the basement.
"I started freaking out once I saw smoke and I said, 'Grandma, we've got to go'," said Raina Compton of her grandmother, who uses a wheelchair.
Police arrived at noon to 56 Cliffside Trail, a narrow, hilly street in the Indian Lake section on a report of a fire. After they entered through the front entrance of the split-level home, they located Compton and her grandmother downstairs in the street-level basement, which connects to the garage.
Police Chief Christopher Wagner, who arrived shortly after the first responders, said a fire in the basement prevented his officers from the quickest escape route — through the garage and out to the driveway.
Police ordered Compton, who had remained at her grandmother's side, to go up the stairs and out of the house. They then tended to her grandmother.
"The officers literally had to drag her up the stairs, and out onto the back deck," Wagner said.