BELLINGHAM - A two-story house on East Maple Street was gutted by fire early Wednesday, Nov. 30, leaving five women looking for a new place to stay.

The flames were sparked about 2:30 a.m. by a heater behind a couch on the first floor of the house at 718 E. Maple St. while three of the renters were asleep, said Bellingham Fire Chief Bill Boyd.

Two other roommates were elsewhere at the time of the fire; all five women are believed to be students at Western Washington University.

Investigators said the heater may have gradually ignited an adjacent wooden picture frame.

One of the tenants woke up to the sound of a smoke alarm and the smell of smoke. She searched for a fire extinguisher, but couldn't find one, Boyd said. By the time she got her two housemates out of bed, the fire had grown too large to put out, so they evacuated.

Firefighters battled the blaze for about three hours, Boyd said. The fire spread through most of the house and caused about $150,000 damage.

The mother of one of the students, Katrina Deweese examines the burnt remains of her backpack Wednesday morning, Nov. 30, 2011, after she and two of her housemates fled an early morning fire at their rental house at 718 E. Maple St. in Bellingham.

The women did not request temporary housing help from the Red Cross.

Julie Deweese, the mother of one of the tenants, said she made a point of replacing all the batteries in all the smoke alarms when her daughter moved in last August.

Boyd said they were fortunate to have had a working smoke alarm.

"In this case," Boyd said, "it probably saved the lives of those kids."