A woman saved her Boswell Crescent house from burning down on Friday afternoon.

That’s according to Whitehorse Fire Department platoon chief Morley MacKay.

MacKay said the woman smelled smoke in her Riverdale home at about 1 p.m., and went downstairs to the basement to investigate.

She noticed flames near the fridge, and blasted them with a fire extinguisher.

Then she went outside and called 911.

Firefighters arrived on the scene and ventilated the home with large fans for about two hours. There was enough smoke to fill most of the split-level home, MacKay said.

The woman was taken to Whitehorse General Hospital by ambulance to be treated for smoke inhalation, he said. She was released six hours later.

“She’s OK,” he said. “I talked to her husband yesterday and everything’s fine.”

The fire is still under investigation and the cause has not yet been determined. MacKay said fire crews have removed the fridge to examine it.

He recommends people leave their house immediately when they realize there’s a fire. But in this case, the woman did save her home, he said.

Had she not acted quickly and extinguished the flames herself, it likely would have been too late by the time the fire department arrived, MacKay said.

It took trucks fewer than 10 minutes to get to the scene.

“We like to be quicker than that, but by the time we get the call and get through traffic....” the platoon chief said. “Traffic’s the biggest issue for us. It’s really bad just going downtown. People don’t pull over.”

He said drivers often don’t pay attention and apparently don’t see or hear “a big red truck with lots of lights and a siren.”