“I happened to see a person hanging out the door with two naked kids, screaming,” she said. “Then I looked real hard and realized she was screaming ‘help me, my house is on fire.'”

Castillo, who is a circulation district manager for The Messenger, jumped out of her vehicle and helped the woman and children escape from the burning house at 1703 Second Ave. N.

“She yelled at me ‘grab my boys,'” Castillo said.

She put the two boys in her sport utility vehicle and wrapped them in blankets.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea Steam rises from Firefighter/Paramedic Mychal Edler as he takes a break after battling a Thursday afternoon house fire at 1703 Second Ave. N.

She also yelled to someone else nearby, and directed them to call 911.

The fire was reported at 1:37 p.m.

Firefighters pulled a hoseline into the house and put out a fire in a kitchen on the first floor of the two-story woodframe house. The flames were contained to the kitchen, but there was smoke damage throughout the rest of the house.

“They got in and knocked it down fast,” Fire Chief Steve Hergenreter said.

“There is significant fire damage to the kitchen,” he added. “They’ll be displaced out of the house.”

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea Fort Dodge firefighters work at the scene of a Thursday afternoon fire at 1703 Second Ave. N. A woman and two children escaped unharmed from the house.

Hergenreter said the fire started on the stove when some grease ignited. He said the flames then spread to the cabinets near the stove and the kitchen ceiling.

No one was injured.

Parts of Second Avenue North and 17th Street were closed while firefighters worked at the scene.

The house is owned by Quality Rentals of Iowa LLC, of Manson, according to online records of the Webster County assessors office. Those records indicate that it was built in 1885.

Hergenreter said Anne Kenney, Brandon Presswood and their two children live there.

Police and firefighters were on the scene until 2:45 p.m.