Nicole Polley woke to the sound of loud banging Thursday morning and stumbled half-asleep into her living room.
The South Salem woman saw a man clad in a bathrobe slamming her barbecue grill into her back sliding glass door, trying to break through the glass.
"It was my neighbors," she said. "They were yelling, 'Your house is on fire! You need to get out!' "
Her neighbors came to her rescue when the front porch of her home in the 1700 block of Highlight Court S caught fire.
Salem firefighters received word of the fire at 7:48 a.m. and were on-scene four minutes later, fire spokesman Bill Holmstrom said.
"When we arrived, that front area was a wall of flames," Battalion Chief Scott Parker said. The first firefighters to arrive called in a second alarm for more help.
Firefighters put out the fire in a matter of minutes. It did not have a chance to get inside the house, Parker said.
Neighbor Jeff Sumner was alerted to the fire when he looked out his kitchen window and saw a woman standing in the street, talking on her cell phone and looking at the house next door.
"I looked out my living room window and saw flames coming over the top of the house," Sumner said, still clad in his bathrobe.
His first thought was of Polley's children, ages 6 and 8. He hustled over to get them out of the house. He didn't know the children were staying with their father and that Polley was home alone.
Sumner went around the side of the house to the back porch, where he found another neighbor already banging on the door to alert Polley.
"I took the barbecue and threw it against the door twice, hoping it would break," Sumner said. "It didn't break, but the noise got her attention."
Polley was still sleep-addled and couldn't quite get what her neighbors were saying. She couldn't see any fire until they had gotten her out of her house and around front.
"Tons of flames. It was everywhere," said Polley, 30. "It was totally engulfed."
The home has working smoke detectors, but they did not go off because the fire was outside, Holmstrom said.
"I have great neighbors," Polley said.
The cause of the fire was determined to be accidental, Holmstrom said. Improperly discarded cigarettes appear to have set fire to a recycling bin located next to the porch.
The loss is estimated at $25,000, of which $23,000 is structural damage and $2,000 is destroyed contents. Polley told firefighters she has renter's insurance.
dmthomps@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6719
