Firefighters clean up after an early morning fire damaged two homes in the 1100 block of Yale Avenue on Wednesday in Claremont. Just before six a.m. neighbor Marc Selznick noticed smoke coming from a back home on the property and called 911. He said that the fire appeared to start on the second story porch, which was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived.

Mr. Selznick was heading to work when he saw what he initially thought was haze but soon realized it was sm

oke. A female resident was on the porch and was trying to extinguish the flames herself. “I told her to get out of there,” he said. Mr. Selznick’s property is directly north of the home where the

fire started.

Marisa Nicely lives in one of the two homes that were damaged and said her dog saved her. She was working out with the headphones on when her dog began to bark.

“I said, ‘stop it, I have five more minutes’ but he kept barking, and then I heard the firefighters pounding on the door,” said Ms. Nicely. Her home was only partly damaged with the fire limited to the north wall and roof.

The two-story brown home where the fire started is one of three rentals on a lot and appeared to be a total loss.