A family had a close call early Thursday morning when a fire broke out in their backyard, scorching a fence and damaging their back porch.
The fire was reported around 2 a.m. in the 2100 block of Applegate Street.
Brian Montgomery said he was asleep when police came pounding on his door. Montgomery’s neighbor had spotted flames coming from a shared fence through her window. The neighbor tried to warn Montgomery herself, but when she was unsuccessful, she called police for help.
"I found out my neighbor had been banging on our door and I guess she cut her hand on our door, so the police officer said he was getting worried. He was about to kick my door in,” Montgomery said.
Philomath firefighters put out the flames in about 15 minutes. The fire burned about 30 feet of cedar fence and damaged a portion of Montgomery’s back porch.
"I look outside and my whole back fence is literally engulfed in flames, and it was like a wall of orange,” Montgomery said.