A fire interrupted Scott and Tiffany Smith’s house cleaning Thursday evening.
Scott had brought a load of laundry to the basement and went upstairs to clean the oven. He decided he need something to help scrape the oven and headed back down stairs.
“I was hit by a blast of black smoke,” he said.
With the Smiths and their dog outside, firefighters entered the house at 1901 First Corso and extinguished the fire in the basement. Firefighters also rescued a hamster.
Firefighters listed the cause of the fire as clothes piled up against the water heater.
The fire was contained to some towels, the water heater and some pluming. Damages are estimated at $5,000.
