LAWRENCE — Rescuers kicked in the front doors of a burning home on Stevens Court and helped a handicapped woman escape the smoky blaze yesterday afternoon.
The fire was one of three potentially life-threatening emergencies in the city within a span of about 45 minutes.
About 4 p.m., police and firefighters responded to a collision between a car and a small school bus, which rolled the bus onto its side. Emergency crews responded to a collision involving a motorcycle and car at Essex and Oxford streets about 3:20 p.m.
Only one person was in the two-family house when the fire broke out at 1 Stevens Court about 3:15 p.m., just off Storrow Street on Prospect Hill.
Officers Gary Yancey and Carmen Purpora were nearby and were the first to arrive. They and emergency medical technicians from Patriot Ambulance Service kicked in the entrance doors to the house and helped Carmen Duran out of her first-floor apartment, where she lives with her husband, Osvaldo Duran.
They checked the basement and first floor for other occupants.
Smoke from the blaze could be seen from Interstate 495, and acting fire Chief Brian Murphy said one of the first calls the department received about the fire came from 360 Merrimack St., across the Merrimack River.
Murphy said there was heavy fire and smoke showing from the second floor at the rear of the two-and-a-half-story, wood frame house when firefighters arrived.
Murphy said a third alarm was struck to bring manpower as well as apparatus to the scene. He said mutual aid from North Andover and Methuen were called to assist. Other mutual aid companies provided coverage at the central station.
Murphy said there was extensive heat and smoke damage to the building, but that the structure appeared to be salvageable.
"There is a lot of monetary damage," he said, estimating it at $250,000.
Reinaldo Duran, owner of the home, lives on the second floor with Jessica Guiffra and four children, and Guiffra's mother, officials said.
"All of the residents are accounted for," Murphy said.
Firefighters were searching for a miniature schnauzer who lived with the family on the second floor.
Murphy said the fire investigation team had been called to investigate the cause of the fire.
