Firefighters Save Woman From Apartment Blaze

Montgomery County firefighters rescued a Silver Spring woman from her third-floor balcony yesterday after a fire began in the kitchen of a nearby apartment, spreading smoke through the building, authorities said.

The 51-year-old woman was taken to a hospital to be evaluated for possible smoke inhalation and because she was experiencing unusually high anxiety, but she was not seriously injured, authorities said. Investigators were trying to determine how the fire started.

Three or four units in the Ridgewood Apartments at 4017 Post Gate Terrace, in the Aspen Hill area of Silver Spring, were damaged by smoke and water. But because utilities to the building had to be shut off, more than a dozen residents were displaced from 14 units. Red Cross workers were on the scene to assist those families.

When firefighters arrived shortly after 10:30 a.m., smoke was pouring from the third floor, authorities said. The woman on the balcony had thrown her purse to the ground and looked as if she was preparing to jump, they said.

Montgomery Fire Lt. Craig Blue said smoke was seeping out of the woman's closed sliding-glass balcony door when he and other firefighters arrived.

One firefighter climbed a ladder and tried to get the woman out through her apartment, but it was too smoky, Blue said. "There was heavy smoke in the stairwell, down to two to three feet," he said.

Firefighters then helped the woman down the ladder. Her name was not released.