Firefighters quickly extinguished a blaze that started in the back wall of a single-family home at 76 Bowdoin St. in Winthrop late Monday morning after a woman staying at the home with her three young children reported it to authorities, Winthrop Fire Chief Dan Brooks said.

The woman, a renter, was at the home with her children around 10:30 a.m. when she first noticed the fire and tried to extinguish it herself, Brooks said. But she was not able to put it out, and units from Winthrop and Monmouth responded to the home. No one was injured in the burn, which responders extinguished in 10 minutes.

“It was relatively simple,” Brooks said. “Had she not been home, we probably could have lost the home.”

The fire started in a wall that’s connected to a back deck on the home. Other than burning the back wall and flooding the home with smoke, the fire did not cause any significant damage.

Brooks said the family would be able to stay there. While the resident is a smoker, Brooks said firefighters found no evidence of smoking materials near the site. He noted there were some electrical wires in the area of the burn that could have played a role.

The home’s smoke detectors were functional and going off when firefighters arrived, Brooks said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation by Peter Struck, a detective with the Winthrop Police Department, who also works for the fire department, Brooks said.

Charles Eichacker — 621-5642

ceichacker@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @ceichacker