As she watched the flames flicker into a gray mid-morning sky, Red Cross officials tried to direct her and others away from the billowing smoke, the spray of water from firefighters' hoses and the noise at 305 Washington St. Monday morning. Kramm resisted.

“I want to watch my house,” she said as flames shot through the roof.

Kramm lived on the first floor, just below the apartment where the fast-moving fire apparently started, gutting a six-family apartment house across from The William W. Backus Hospital and displacing all 15 residents.

Ten people were in the three-story, yellow vinyl-sided house when the fire started. One resident succumbed to smoke inhalation outside the house and was taken to Backus. A hospital spokesman said she was expected to be released later Monday.

One firefighter had to be rescued from the house, city Fire Chief Kenneth Scandariato said, and was taken to Backus. He was released later Monday. Two other firefighters suffered exhaustion and were treated and released at Backus, Scandariato said.

The Yantic Volunteer Fire Department, the first crew to arrive on-scene at about 9:45 a.m., saw smoke billowing from the second floor. Scandariato and Yantic Chief Frank Blanchard said as firefighters first arrived, they heard reports that several people were trapped on the third floor. Firefighters from both departments made sweeps of the building and confirmed that all residents had escaped.

Smith Harmonay, a junior at Norwich Free Academy, had the day off because of the Veterans Day holiday. His parents, he said, were working.

“I smelled smoke,” said Harmonay, who lived on the third floor, directly above where the fire started. “When I got out, it was obvious that the home was on fire. It's tough for me. Everything is in there. I don't know what to do.

“Everything is replaceable, but we aren't,” Harmonay added. “At least no one was hurt.”

During the initial sweeps, firefighters rescued one cat. Two others were being tended to by firefighters from the Laurel Hill Volunteer Fire Department.

Norwich Deputy Fire Marshal Jake Manke said the fire apparently started when food was left unattended cooking on the stove of a second-floor rear apartment. It quickly spread and engulfed the third floor.

Yantic firefighter William Eyberse said crews tried to enter the house to attack the fire, but quickly exited and began a “defensive operation.”

Kramm, who lived on the first floor, thought firefighters were slow to attack the blaze. Scandariato and Blanchard disputed that claim, saying water was shooting at the flames within four minutes, but it was already out of control and spreading through wide gaps between walls and floors and into the attic.

Fire crews from all Norwich departments were called to assist.

“It's an old, wood-frame, balloon construction which really causes the fire to spread so quickly,” Eyberse said. “There are three different ceilings in that structure. Every time we ripped a ceiling, there was more fire to be extinguished.”

At times the smoke was so intense and dark that the ladder trucks disappeared in the fumes. Insulation and siding melted and blew away from the house, landing in neighbors' yards. Portions of the roof also collapsed.

Smith Harmonay's mother, Mary, stood across the street along with a dozen or so others, watching firefighters battle the blaze. She pointed toward the house as smoke billowed from a window. “See that unit with the air conditioner?” she said. “That's my apartment. It's obvious that everything is destroyed. I'm in shock.”

Dawn Boutin, who rents an apartment at 303 Washington St., was forced to leave her home when firefighters told her they were worried that embers may ignite a fire there. Residents from her building went to a shelter set up at the Rose City Senior Center for the 900 people left without power after Norwich Public Utilities shut off electricity along Washington Street.

Boutin said she noticed fire on the rear window on the second floor, and decided to move her car.

Traffic was blocked from the Route 32/2 connector at Washington Street to Mohegan Road, making access to nearby businesses and Backus Hospital nearly impossible.

The main entrance to the hospital was closed, but patients, staff and emergency vehicles were able to get there using an alternative entrance off Lafayette Street, spokesman Shawn Mawhiney said. No patients had to be diverted, he said, and no scheduled surgeries were postponed.

To keep heavy smoke from the fire out of the hospital, Backus locked its main front door and shut vents that let in outside air, Mawhiney said.

The American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the city's Emergency Management Services were on hand to assist throughout the day.

Five Red Cross volunteers arrived at about 10:30 a.m. and interviewed residents, just as a thick cloud of black-and-yellow smoke poured from the house, engulfing fire trucks, neighboring houses and onlookers. The group scrambled, nearly blinded, to a neighboring yard.

Sue Rochester Bolin, emergency services coordinator for the Southeastern Connecticut Chapter of the American Red Cross, said by that by midday residents from five of the six apartments had been interviewed. Some would be housed in nearby hotels for the night, while others said they planned to stay with relatives or friends.

According to tax records, the house is owned by Washington Street LLC of Old Lyme. Owner Craig Silver was on the scene Monday afternoon, but declined to comment.

The house was one of seven Washington Street properties proposed to be included in a controversial commercial zone change in October. Developers withdrew the application after intense opposition. Several neighbors who had led that opposition stood and watched Monday's fire nearly destroy the historic, 19th-century house they had fought to save.

City historian Dale Plummer estimated the house was built before 1868. Joe East, assistant city building official, said the house might be a total loss; at least 80 percent of the dwelling was destroyed, and first-floor apartments suffered heavy water and smoke damage.

Several residents remained at the scene late Monday afternoon as an excavator began to dismantle the charred remains of the roof and upper stories. Firefighters quickly turned hoses onto still-flaming debris as it was demolished.

By 4 p.m., Yantic Chief Blanchard allowed several firefighters to venture into the first floor apartments, undamaged by flame but flooded with water and smoke, to retrieve as many personal belongings as possible. They emerged with warped and soaked photo frames, boxes of photographs, bureau drawers and one large filing cabinet.

Everyone turned toward the house in amazement as one firefighter emerged carrying a howling, soaking wet, dark gray cat from the building. He quickly placed the animal in a waiting cat carrier and it was taken either to a veterinarian or to the Norwich dog pound.

Day Staff Writer Judy Benson contributed to this report.