An elderly woman escaped an early morning house fire in Peachtree City Saturday morning despite the fact that her smoke alarm didn’t sound an alert.

The woman called 911 from her front lawn after escaping the house at 3:39 a.m. said Peachtree City Assistant Fire Marshall David Williamson. Firefighters entered the house to attack the flames, but had to withdraw when the roof began to collapse, Williamson said.

It took about 35 minutes to get the fire under control, he said.

The fire started in the attic and the cause of the fire is still under investigation, Williamson said. Investigators have determined the fire was not intentional, he added.

The smoke alarm may not have worked because it was hard-wired into the house and had no battery backup, Williamson said. Thus, once the house lost power the smoke alarm wouldn’t sound, he said.

The house was built in 1983 or 1984 when houses weren’t required to have battery backups for their hard-wired smoke detectors, Williamson noted.

The victim had just moved into the home in October, Williamson said. Six fire recruits helped the victim and some family members move what belongings they could salvage into two storage pods donated by Mobile Storage Depot to assist fire victims.

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