When Millie Allen heard the fire alarm go off, she did not hesitate.
Playing a hunch that the blaze might have originated from next door, the resident of Prince George Chateau went around to the patio door where she found a suite engulfed in smoke and flame.
That didn't stop her from opening the door and calling out for her female neighbour. Despite three feet of flame rising from a recliner next to the entrance and fire burning along an adjacent wall, Allen even took a step inside.
As she used the door to shield herself from the burning recliner, Allen talked the woman, who was on the other side of the suite, to within arm's reach. Then she grabbed and heaved.
"We both just flew out the door," Allen said.
"I think I landed right on top of her."
Allen is being described as one of the heroes during the Wednesday-morning fire that forced an evacuation of 107 residents plus staff from the retirement home.
"There's no doubt in my mind that she saved her life, I don't think there is any arguing that," said Prince George Fire Rescue chief fire prevention officer Marcel Profeit said.
He said Allen straddled a fine line between being courageous and careless.
"She told me she took a step into the room which I might not recommend and in hindsight she probably should've crouched down, but you don't think of those things when you're doing it," Profeit said.
He also recommends practicing escapes, not just planning them.
"In a real-life situation, with the smoke alarm ringing and in this case, the smoke alarm going off and thick black smoke, it's going to really, really disorientate you and you need to practice that escape plan - even at night with your eyes closed," Profeit said.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation but Profeit said a finding should be made public within the next few days.
Allen, who was taken to hospital, still had some congestion a day later from the smoke she breathed in.
She also suffered a minor burn to her hand.
Exactly what drove her to take such action, Allen could not say, but "I wasn't leaving until she came with me."
Firefighters, ambulance personnel and RCMP were called to the scene, as were four city buses in which most of the residents spent the morning waiting for the signal that they could return.
Allen commended Chateau staff and emergency personnel for the way they responded.
"We even had the Native Friendship Centre come up here bringing blankets and pillows," Allen said. "You just wouldn't have believed it."
Allen, who is 74 years old, has been a resident at the Chateau for seven years and says it's a great place to live.
"I just love it here," she said.
Renovators are already in the wing that was affected carrying out repairs but Allen will have to wait a few more days before she can return to her suite and is staying elsewhere in the Chateau for the time being.
"I slept there last night and all I could see was flames," Allen said with a laugh.
