The only resident home at the time told authorities she’d fallen asleep while boiling water for tea and awoke to the flames around 2:30 p.m.
She was treated for smoke inhalation. A firefighter also sustained a minor shoulder injury in the blaze, which was extinguished within an hour.
Firefighters from Alpine, Closter, Hackensack, Harrington Park, Haworth, New Milford, Norwood and Tenafly joined their Demarest colleagues and Cresskill FAST at the Hillside Avenue fire.
Dumont and New Milford provided mutual aid.
Firefighters had to lay nearly 1,000 feet of hose to reach a hydrant nearly a block from the 114-year-old, 2,400-square-foot home.
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