CARBONDALE -- A woman was injured jumping from a second-floor window escaping a fire in her home in Carbondale.
The fire broke out around 9 a.m. Thursday in the home on Spencer Street.
Two people had to jump from a window to escape the flames.
Firefighters in Carbondale says a couple woke up to a ball of flames blocking them from their apartment's only entrance.
Fire marshals would later find that a cigarette caused it all.
The snow was coming down as Carbondale firefighters worked to douse flames that severely damaged the back of an apartment home on Spencer Street in the city.
"The weather didn't hamper us until the end," said Carbondale Fire Chief Chris Pezak. "Then we started flowing some water and then everything started freezing up pretty fast."
When the smoke cleared, fire marshals were called in and determined that a cigarette discarded on the second-floor back porch started it all.
The fire blocked a man and a woman living in the upstairs apartment from getting out.
Those second-floor tenants punched out one of the front windows. They were able to climb out onto the porch roof and then jump down into the front yard to get to safety.
The woman was taken to the hospital with a leg injury. The man suffered some cuts to his hand.
Terrance McCord lives in the first-floor apartment with his wife and 11-month-old daughter.
"Stay calm and stay focused, so that's what I did," McCord said.
He was able to get his family out of the house before firefighters arrived. He fears everything inside his apartment may be lost.
"Lost all my daughter's stuff for her party," McCord said. "Everybody's still breathing, nobody got hurt. The girl broke her leg, from jumping off her roof but she broke her leg to get to safety."
According to the fire chief, the owner of the house still has to decide whether the building can be salvaged. The five people who lived there are being helped by the American Red Cross.
