SAGLE - A homeowner near Gamlin Lake managed to turn the tables on a structure fire on Sunday by simply shutting a bedroom door.

"Shutting the door to the bedroom saved his whole house from burning down, in my opinion," said Sagle and Sandpoint Fire Capt. Reny Hansen.

Fire crews from the joint department were summoned to the 200 block of Glengary Bay Road shortly after 11 a.m. on Sunday.

The homeowner faced a lengthened response time due to treacherous road conditions. In the best conditions, it takes about 20 minutes to reach the site of the fire.

Hansen said between chaining up all of the fire apparatuses and slower travel speeds, the response time topped 30 minutes. She was afraid the entire home would be overrun by flames by the time firefighters arrived.

"I was pretty shocked to see that it was still contained in the bedroom," said Hansen.

Hansen's opinion that closing the bedroom door saved the home is shared by the department's chief, Ron Stocking. The closed door deprived the fire a crucial ingredient - oxygen.

"Right now, houses are sealed up pretty tight and the fire consumed all the oxygen - all of the air available in the room - and it basically caused the fire smolder. Because he did that, the fire wasn't able to get any new, fresh oxygen," Stocking said.

Stocking estimated that the fire caused $20,000 in damage. But closing the door saved the homeowner an estimated $280,000 in damages, he said.

Hansen cautions against opening doors to burning rooms and emphasizes that a burning room's door should only be shut if it can be done safely and without belaboring an escape.

Hansen said the homeowners had such an opportunity and also made the wise choice not to try and find their cat when they retreated from the home.

Hansen said the cat escaped the fire unharmed.

The main part of the fire was a burning mattress. Hansen said newer mattresses contain foam materials that release extremely toxic smoke when they burn.

Hansen said the bedroom door was of a heavier wooden variety, but suspects other types of doors would have performed similarly.

"Really, any door would have done what that one did," she said.

Firefighters suspect an electric blanket was at the root of the blaze. A power outage struck the neighborhood that morning and the homeowner activated a generator, which may have caused the blanket to malfunction.

As a general rule, Hansen said such blankets should only be switched on and plugged in when they are in active use. Otherwise, they should be powered off and unplugged.