An off-duty firefighter answered the call to rescue a woman in a house fire after she was trapped by burglar bars that had been placed on all of her windows.

Greenville Fire Chief Ruben Brown posted about the early Tuesday morning house and other fires that have challenged Greenville firefighters in the last three weeks.

In Tuesday’s house fire, Brown posted on social media that a female victim awoke to find the fire inside her home shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday and was trapped. Brown said the woman fled to the bedroom and called 911.

After the fire dispatcher announced the address and that a victim was trapped with burglary bars on all windows Greenville Training Chief Lonnie Smith, who was off-duty and blocks away about to start work at his personal business, heard the call on his radio and rushed to the location just before fire units arrived.

“Once on scene, Chief Smith noticed a hand out of the window and a voice yelling for help,” Brown posted. “With the bars on the window and no rescue tools, Chief Smith physically removed the bars after a few tugs. The female’s voice excitedly said, ‘Get Me Baby!’ So, Chief Smith, got her and removed her from a smoking flaming structure that nearly ended her life.”

Brown said the last several weeks have been challenging for the men and women of the Greenville Fire Department.

“Several weeks ago, 3-year-old Jaiden Bennett lost his life in a structure fire that left grief after doing all that was possible to rescue him,” Brown wrote. “Then a week from that exact day, Relief Lieutenant Dusty Harbison, Lieutenant Buggs, Captain Ivory Walker and Assistant Chief Renover White rescued, performed CPR and transported a 2-year-old boy from a structure fire on South Percy to Delta Health -The Medical Center.”

On Monday, a man narrowly escaped a burning house, Brown wrote.

“I first thank God for His Grace and Mercy for sparring the lives of the rescued. I thank God for this noble profession that I love (firefighter),” Brown wrote.  “But sincerely thank God for Greenville’s bravest firefighters. Job well done!”