Dozens of firefighters were on scene of a house fire Friday morning (Nov. 29) in Fort Smith.
The fire sparked at a home on North 35th and L Street shortly before 2 a.m. Firefighters said a woman was taken out of the home as flames engulfed a large portion of the house.
A woman was rescued from the home with life-threatening injuries, authorities said. She was able to be revived on the front lawn of the house by EMS. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but her condition has been upgraded to stable as of 3 a.m.
The man was taken by ambulance to a local hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, according to crews on site.
Authorities said there were smoke detectors inside the home, but they were not working because the batteries were dead.
The Fort Smith Fire Department will go to people's homes and test smoke detectors to make sure they work, according to Captain Gabriel Flanagan.
"It's very important, it's probably one of the leading things that saves people's live... a smoke detector that's in good operation," he said.
The Fire Marshal is investigating to find the cause of the fire. A neighbor, Victor Long, said he had been helping the woman try to locate the source of an electrical problem at the back of the house just a couple of weeks ago.
"She said, maybe you can come over and check it out and see where maybe I'm having a short at and I said I'd be happy to do it , just as soon as I've got time to do it," he said. "Well, I guess we waited too long and now we have a house fire."