Norwich - A woman who was pulled out of her burning Lafayette Street home by passers-by and neighbors Thursday afternoon later died from her injuries.

Marie Bronson was the only person inside the gray, two-story home at 91 Lafayette St. when the two-alarm fire broke out at about 5 p.m.

A jogger and neighbors who spotted the smoke and flames found the woman unconscious about 5 feet inside her front door and tried to revive her using CPR as fire crews arrived at the scene. Bronson was taken to The William W. Backus Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to a nursing supervisor.

Steve Smigiel was one of the people who helped pull Bronson out of the home. He was out jogging his usual route along Lafayette Street when he smelled smoke.

"I could smell that it was a building," Smigiel said, glancing back at the fire scene. "The flames were coming out of the rear windows. I knocked on the door and I didn't hear anything ... but it was unlocked. The smoke was choking."

When he opened the door, he said, thick, black smoke billowed out toward him. He started to crawl inside the house and was feeling around in the dark when he felt a leg and started pulling.

Yantic Volunteer Fire Chief Frank Blanchard said when firefighters first arrived there was heavy fire inside the house and flames were showing from the roof and three sides of the building. It took an aggressive attack to get it knocked down in about 30 minutes, he said.

Blanchard said two dogs also died in the fire.

As the blaze burned most of the smoke-filled home, Smigiel continued to pull on the woman to try to get her outside. That's when Jorge Reatas, who lives two houses away, and his brother-in-law saw the flames and joined Smigiel.

As flames shot from the house and smoke poured from the windows and roof, the three men lay Bronson on a neighbor's lawn and, with the help of a pair of volunteer firefighters who are also neighbors, started CPR.

"There was too much smoke," Reatas said. "We just took the lady and that's it."

Reatas' wife, Isabel, saw the flames from the couple's back yard and yelled to her husband. She said she knew the woman there as Marie, but did not know her last name. She said Marie is in her 70s and stopped by sometimes for tea.

Firefighters had a difficult time battling the flames because the house was cluttered, creating obstacles for crews to move around while trying to water down the flames, Blanchard said.

The fire appeared to have started in the rear of the first floor of the home, where the kitchen and dining room are located. Blanchard said fire crews from the Norwich Fire Department and investigators from the Norwich fire marshal's office were working to determine the exact cause, but it did not initially appear suspicious.

The fire left much of the inside of the first floor charred black. Some of the siding had melted and a neighbor's wooden porch appeared partially blackened from the flames.

Firefighters from the Yantic, Laurel Hill and Taftville volunteer departments helped battle the flames. Other crews also responded for assistance.

Smigiel said about 15 years ago his grandmother died in a house fire.

When asked what went through his mind as he went into the burning building, he looked back again at the fire scene.

"I don't really know," he said. "I guess I was thinking about that."

m.naughton@theday.com