KITCHENER — Firefighters rescued a woman from a second floor window of a burning rooming house Tuesday night in Kitchener.

The woman, 37, was taken to hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation, said Platoon Chief Steve Zurell of the Kitchener Fire Department.

Firefighters were called at 10:32 p.m. to 340 Weber St. W., near the Kitchener-Waterloo boundary.

“There was heavy fire in the back area of the main floor,” Zurell said.

Firefighters accounted for five of the six residents of the one-and-a-half storey building. Then they found the woman at the upstairs window. “She came down a ladder: she wasn’t able to get down the stairs,” Zurell said.

Four of the residents are using emergency housing offered by the Red Cross, Zurell said.

Damage is estimated at $200,000.

The fire is blamed on careless disposal of smoking materials, Zurell said.