Norwich — Heather LeClair had just left for work — her first shift at a new job — when her home went up in flames.

She was minutes into her shift when her phone started ringing repeatedly with calls from her neighbors. Then it lit up with a notification from her Ring doorbell camera, alerting her that her smoke detector was going off.

"Oh my gosh, I think my house is on fire," she told her bosses.

The 32-year-old, who works as a behavior technician for a Norwich family, knew that her beloved 8-year-old pit bull-Labrador mix, Sterling, and her pet fish and pet snail were trapped in her apartment.

At the same time, Rjay Hardison was at home with his fiancée, Samantha Lamadeleine, when they heard a commotion outside — the house across the street was engulfed in flames and their neighbors were running outside to escape the blaze.

Hardison and Lamadeleine had lived across from LeClair for years and they knew she had a pit bull, just like they do. When they didn't see her car parked outside, they knew Sterling was trapped inside.

As another neighbor — who was texting with LeClair — shouted that the dog was stuck on the third floor, Hardison grabbed his shoes, sprinted across the street and ran into the burning building.

"It was just instinct," he said.

In the moments Hardison spent inside, the fire worsened rapidly. Lamadeleine watched from the sidewalk as she waited for her fiancé to emerge.

"I got scared because everything just went dark, it was pitch black in a matter of seconds," she said. "But he didn't think twice, he just went over there and kicked in the door."

Inside, Hardison was trying to coax the frightened dog to come with him. The dog wouldn't budge.

"He's a big dog and he did not want to come with me, so I picked him up. He's a big, heavy dog," Hardison said the day after the fire, standing in his doorway feet away from the charred skeleton of the three-family house at 78 School St.

The rescue occurred just in time.

"He busted down the door and carried my dog out of the house and a few minutes later the floor collapsed," LeClair said from her mother's house in Waterford on Wednesday.

LeClair's two other pets, a guppy fish and snail, didn't survive the blaze. "It's so sad thinking about them being in there," she said of her pets. "But thank god he saved my dog."

She said the neighbors on School Street are close, always look out for each other and share a love of animals — many of them own dogs and run into one another on walks with them.

Hardison, who has a chihuahua and cat in addition to his pit bull, said that he didn't think twice about the heroic act. "I wish people would do it for me in that situation," he said.

LeClair said she's still trying to comprehend the fact that, in a matter of minutes, she lost everything.

"On my Ring (doorbell camera) footage you can see me leaving at 5:25 for work, six minutes later you see just smoke filling the air and then one of my neighbors is pounding on my door yelling 'fire, fire!' and my dog was barking and then the whole house went up in flames," she said.

On Wednesday afternoon, debris still littered the sidewalk and mixed with snow as crews made their way through the hollowed out, blackened second and third floors.

"The big black burnt part that everyone can see from the street is my office," LeClair said. "That's where I spend every day doing my homework."

LeClair, a student at Three Rivers Community College, is studying social work with plans to become a licensed therapist. Luckily, firefighters were able to save her laptop from the fire after hours on the scene.

Though it has some water damage, she was able to turn on the computer and get to her school files. "School is the most important thing to me right now," said LeClair, who has been enrolled in classes for more than a year.

Since she graduated from East Lyme High School in 2008, she said she has worked multiple jobs to support herself. She just recently made the decision to return to school.

"For all these years I've been independent and now that I started school, this happens," she said. She said she feels guilty asking for help, but allowed a friend to start a GoFundMe fundraiser for her, at gofund.me/5a804004, because she "just lost everything."

"Nobody ever wakes up one day and thinks it's the day they lose their home," she wrote in an emotional post on Facebook.

She hopes her neighbors will get the help and support they need, too. Her roommate also recently started a new job — he had just moved into the apartment a few months ago and is now staying with his mother following the fire.

Firefighters were called to the scene about 5:37 p.m. Tuesday for reports of a fire in a kitchen and arrived three minutes later to find heavy clouds of smoke pouring from the three-family home. The fire was under control by 6:03 p.m., according to the Norwich Fire Department. There were no injuries in the blaze.

The American Red Cross said it was assisting five families — 12 adults and four children — and several cats and dogs who were displaced from the fire. The home at 78 School St. had three apartments spanning three floors, and the heat and smoke damage from the fire extended to a neighboring house. Two families from that house were displaced, as well. No injuries were reported from the blaze.

American Red Cross Regional Communications Director Jocelyn Hillard said the Red Cross first assisted families with immediate needs. The agency also provided a recovery envelope containing information helpful to families recovering from a fire, including tips on cleanup; notification of important contacts; dealing with damaged items and more.

The Red Cross is also providing comfort kits containing personal care items such as toothbrushes, deodorant; shaving supplies and other items a resident might need when suddenly displaced from their home by a fire, Hillard explained in a news release Wednesday afternoon.

Those affected will connect with Red Cross caseworkers in the coming days to work on a longer-term recovery plan. The Red Cross is able to provide assistance through donations and volunteers.

Norwich Human Services Director Tara Booker said Wednesday she has been in contact with Red Cross officials, and the city agency will be meeting with displaced families to determine their needs and how the agency can help. She said she did not yet know how many residents will seek assistance.

The Human Services office is seeking donations of cash and gift cards to assist the families. Gift cards for grocery and department stores, or checks made out to Norwich Human Services with a notation for School Street fire" can be brought or mailed to Norwich Human Services, Norwich City Hall, Room 212, Norwich, CT 06360.

The Norwich Fire Department was assisted by the East Great Plain Volunteer Fire Department, the Taftville Volunteer Fire Department, the Yantic Volunteer Fire Department and the Firefighter Assist Team from the Mohegan Tribal Fire Department. Norwich Public Utilities also responded and secured the electrical and gas services to the building.

The final fire crews cleared from the scene about 10:45 p.m., said the fire department. A fire watch was set up to keep an eye on the building throughout the night and fire marshal's office personnel remained on scene, according to fire officials.

The fire marshal's office is investigating and as of late Wednesday afternoon had not yet determined the cause of the blaze. The city building department was working with the owner of the property. According to Norwich property records, the home is owned by New London-based Rose Town Properties LLC.

t.hartz@theday.com

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