Fire caused significant damage to a house on Lee Street off of Long Ferry Road in Spencer Monday afternoon, and a resident was treated for smoke inhalation.

Spencer Fire Chief Jay Baker said the department received the call at 1:13 p.m. and took an offensive approach to fighting the fire. As the flames grew, they had to switch to defensive, pull back from the house and sound a second alarm.

While the fire jumped to the roof and neighbors gathered in the street to watch, a woman who lived in the house, Barbara Harrison, was being treated by EMS for smoke inhalation. She did not suffer any injuries.

Baker says the fire was reported by two Salisbury Police officers who happened to be driving by. Lieutenants Lee Walker and Andy Efird say they were driving down Long Ferry Road towards a shooting range to test out a new rifle when they saw smoke rising from Harrison’s home. When they got closer, Efird says they saw smoke pouring from the eaves and Harrison standing on her porch.

Efird, who worked as a volunteer fireman for 24 years in addition to being a police officer, said he believes she was in shock and didn’t know how to react. Efird, Walker and David Miller, a neighbor, pulled Harrison from the porch. Efird and Walker radioed in directly to the fire department to inform them of the house fire.

“It had nothing to do with being police officers,” Efird said, “It was just being a good person.”

Spencer, Miller’s Ferry, Salisbury, Ellis, East Spencer, Franklin, Union and South Salisbury fire departments responded.