PHOTO PROVIDED

BARBOURS – A retired Montoursville School District employee and her dog safely escaped her home on Route 87 Sunday night when a fire erupted on her wrap-around porch, according to Plunketts Creek Fire Chief Township Brad Stine.

The woman, who lived alone, was asleep in her living room and was awakened by her dog about 9:30 p.m., Stine said.

“She said the exterior wall on her porch was on fire,” Stine said.

The home at 13504 Route 87, about two miles from the firehouse, was a total loss and damage was in excess of $150,000.

The name of the homeowner was not provided, but Stine said she had lived in the house for many years. She does have fire insurance, he added.

A passerby stopped to make sure that the woman got out safely, Stine said.

The entire two-story home was engulfed in fire with “flames coming out of every window,” one fireman said.

Firefighters from several Lycoming and Sullivan communities were dispatched to the property.

Part of the home had already started to collapse when firefighters arrived on the scene.

Stine said it was an all exterior attack.

It took close to an hour before the fire was declared under control, and crews remained on the scene for another two hours, dousing hot spots.

Cpl. Nathan Birth, a state police fire marshal, will inspect the scene this week and try to determine the origin and cause of the blaze.

Besides Plunketts Creek firefighters, numerous tankers shuttled water to the scene from Loyalsock Creek along Lower Barbours Road, about three miles away.