A courageous neighbor helped a woman escape a burning home in Smithtown early Sunday morning.

The fire broke out at around 2 a.m. at the home on Marquette Place.

Neighbor Keith Williams had just returned home from celebrating a friend's birthday. He saw the flames, called 911, hopped over a fence, and learned that there was still someone inside the home. He rushed into the burning home.

"I pretty much tripped over the lady as I was running in to try to find her because it was just black," he recalls. "The smoke was pretty intense."

The woman suffered critical burns and was hospitalized, along with two other residents who are being treated for smoke inhalation.

A firefighter also suffered minor injuries while responding to the blaze.

Fire officials say that the home burned extremely quickly. The home was completely destroyed, leaving only a charred skeleton and a mound of debris in its place.

The siding on the home next door melted from the intensity of the blaze.