Fire investigators say they need your help finding whoever set a Northwest Reno home on fire early this morning...leaving it partially destroyed.
The fire broke out shortly after 4:00 a.m. Monday at a home on the 1600 block of Catherine Way in Reno.
Firefighters say the fire began at the front of the structure and spread into the attic- and after investigating, they say it was set intentionally.
A woman living in the home and her pet dog were able to escape.
She was woken up by, Pat Schroeder, a neighbor who saw the fire.
"I was going to ring her doorbell, but there were flames all over the top of the door," he said. "They were, more or less, falling down in the doorway."
Then, he saw the flames start to spread. He then tried to use her garden hose to fight it, but it did not work because it appeared the pipes were frozen.
"At that point, I walked around the side of the house," Schroeder said. "Figured I'd go back to where her bedroom probably was and banged on the windows and yelled her name. I could hear the dog barking, and I also heard the fire alarm was going off."
Officials say the smoke alarms were not working when they checked it, but that the fire could have caused a malfunction. Crews still stress the importance of always making sure those alarms are in working order.
“A lot of times, people can sleep through a fire because it generates the smoke and that can kill, carbon monoxide, the smoke bi-products can kill you if you're sleeping and so a working smoke detector is essential,” says Captain Tray Palmer, Reno Fire Dept, Div. of Fire Prevention.
If you know anything that can help investigators, call Secret Witness at 322-4900 or text your tip to 847411 or go online to
www.secretwitness.com
