WILTON — A 3-year-old boy playing with a lighter started a house fire and his great-grandmother pulled him to safety early Monday morning in Wilton, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Barbara Dalot, 77, heard flames crackling and smelled smoke inside her two-story home at about 6 a.m., just before she grabbed the boy and carried him outside to dial 911, according to Assistant Fire Chief Kyle Ellis.

Dalot and the boy, who were not hurt, watched from across the street as flames shattered windows and heavy black smoke poured out, Ellis said. Emergency responders started to arrive within minutes of the emergency call about 5 Kent Drive, and most damage was contained to the upstairs bedroom, where the fire started, he said.

Sgt. Ken Grimes of the State Fire Marshal’s Office said the boy was playing with a lighter and probably ignited a mattress or another item before he went downstairs, which is when Dalot noticed the smoke and took him outside.

Family members at the scene Monday morning said the boy lives at the home, along with two of Dalot’s grandsons, who were away at the time of the fire.

Shawn Lord, 28, lives in the bedroom that the fire gutted. He returned from a doctor’s appointment in Waterville to find the frantic scene and spent the next two hours trying to figure out what to do, he said.

Lord, who is looking for work as a logger, sat on a neighbor’s porch across the street, where other family members and neighbors had gathered after the fire. He looked up at his bedroom window and the home’s siding, which had been scarred by thick, black char marks, then reeled off a list aloud of the things he lost in the fire.

“Everything I owned in the world was in there. I don’t know what I’m going to do now,” he said.

The rest of the house sustained damage from smoke and the water used to try to douse the fire, Grimes said, adding that Dalot has insurance and should be able to repair the home.

Some of the family members who rushed to the scene Monday morning also have lived at the home with Dalot at one point.

Among them was Amanda Lake, Dalot’s 23-year-old great-granddaughter from Jay, who lived at the house as a teenager. She said Dalot always took in relatives and friends without questions, giving them a place to live when they faced tough times.

Lake described Dalot, known as “Gram” to those she sheltered, as a guiding light for generations of people who wouldn’t be here without her kindness. Dalot has lived in the home for more than 40 years and taken in a lot of people through the years, Lake said.

“She gave up a lot for everyone. She deserves that the favors be repaid, and I’ll do whatever I can to help her,” Lake said of Dalot.

Lake and other family members said they plan to take in their relatives displaced by the fire, until those relatives decide what to do. The other man living at the home was Bruce Quirrion, 40, according to family members.

Fire trapped inside the home’s insulation reignited about 4 p.m., but the brief flare-up didn’t cause much additional damage, according to a Wilton Fire Department spokesman. Ellis did not return calls Monday afternoon about the second response.

Grimes called the initial fire an accident that could have turned out much worse, comparing it to another house fire Sunday in Richmond, where Michael Coston, 9, was badly burned after he started a fire while playing with a lighter.

Coston was in critical but stable condition Monday just before noon, according to a spokeswoman at Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston.

Fire departments from Farmington, Jay and Livermore Falls assisted at the Wilton fire scene Monday morning. No injuries were reported.

David Robinson — 861-9287

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