VANCOUVER, Wash. --
Two neighbors helped a woman escape from an early morning fire that caused $500,000 in damage to a Vancouver apartment building, firefighters said.
Police dispatchers said they received a 911 call at about 1 a.m. Friday from a woman screaming, "My apartment is on fire." The line then line went dead.
Vancouver fire crews arrived at the Autumn Chase Apartments in the 11000 block of Northeast Seventh Street about 5 minutes later.
Arriving firefighters said they saw flames shooting 50 feet in the air from three second-floor apartments.
The caller, identified as 64-year-old Faith Hobbs, had been screaming for help and was helped out of the back of her apartment by a neighbor.
"I thought I was going to get burnt. I was yelling," Hobbs said.
Another Good Samaritan helped catch Hobbs after she jumped to safety from her second-floor window.
Firefighters said Hobbs and the 45-year-old man who assisted her inside the burning apartment suffered from smoke inhalation. One of Hobbs' cats died in the fire.
The blaze damaged six units in the building.
Hobbs said she moved into her home in February and remembers a previous fire at the apartment complex that ignited Easter morning.
She added that managers require residents to have renter's insurance.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
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