An off-duty Indiana State Police trooper saved a woman from a house fire Wednesday night.
Trooper Jacob Ridgeway was driving through Muncie around 6 p.m. in his marked cruiser when he noticed white smoke coming from the rear of a residence at 1208 Cowing Drive, according to a news release.
The smoke quickly went from white to black and got increasingly thicker. Ridgway exited his patrol car and could see a vehicle was fully engulfed in fire under the carport at the rear of the house.
The home's owner, 79-year-old Jack Mitchener, was standing outside the carport and was in shock.
A neighbor arrived and told Ridgeway that the man's wife, 72-year-old Virginia Mitchener, was still inside the house.
The 1-year veteran of the force entered the home through a side patio door and found the woman seated in a chair in the house with her walker nearby. Smoke was beginning to fill the rear of the house as Ridgway helped her to the door.
As the trooper and the woman got to the door, neighbors Scott and Linda Clark helped get the elderly woman safely away from the home.
At that point, Ridgway returned to his cruiser and radioed for EMS and fire units. Everyone on the scene was checked and no injuries were reported.
