Sheila R. Barner couldn’t sleep, so she was watching television at about 4 a.m. today when she smelled smoke.

The smoke was coming from above the second-floor ceiling of the row house she shares in Richmond's Fan District with Patricia J. McGarry. Both women are nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital.

By the time Richmond firefighters arrived about 15 minutes later, Barner had alerted their neighbors in the row of five adjoining houses facing Retreat Hospital in the 100 block of North Mulberry Street.

"We’re all lucky she doesn’t sleep well," said McGarry, holding her poodle, Pete, as she stood outside of her damaged home at 108 N. Mulberry St.

No one was injured in the two-alarm fire, which caused extensive damage to the second floor of 108 N. Mulberry and to 106 N. Mulberry. Fire Capt. Ross Anderson said the firewalls that separate the row houses, built in 1914 or 1915, worked well, but the fire apparently jumped between porch roofs at the rear of the buildings.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Anderson commended Barner and McGarry for alerting their neighbors quickly.

"Everyone was out," he said. "They did a wonderful job."

-- Michael Martz