Blaze Kills Woman in San Dimas : Fire: An apprentice firefighter living next door rushes to her aid but is driven back by the smoke.

Despite a rescue attempt by an apprentice firefighter living next door, an elderly San Dimas woman was killed Tuesday in an early-morning blaze that gutted her hillside home.

Authorities declined to identify the woman, a 70-year-old widow, until relatives could be notified.

She apparently died in her sleep along with her pet schnauzer after flames broke out in her living room and spread through the yellow three-bedroom home at the edge of Angeles National Forest.

Cause of the fire is under investigation. Officials said it appeared to have been accidental and the woman was a smoker. Damage to the house, a one-story stucco structure in the 2000 block of Terrebonne Avenue, was estimated at $400,000.

The screams of neighbors about 7 a.m. awakened Don Goff, 21, an Explorer Scout with the Los Angeles County Fire Department who was on vacation from classes at Mt. San Antonio College nearby.

Goff, who plans to graduate in February with a degree in fire science, quickly threw on the gear--yellow coveralls and a helmet--that he has worn on more than 600 hours of ride-alongs with county firefighters.

He ran next door and hurled a rock through the front window, but he said he was turned away by the “jet black” smoke that billowed out. He then went to the side of the house and grabbed a garden hose, trying to douse flames leaping from the living room.

“It was too late, though,” said Goff, whose younger brother, Mike, had helped the woman hang Christmas lights around her house three weeks ago. “I felt helpless just sitting here knowing there was someone inside and not being able to do anything about it.”

By then, 26 county firefighters had arrived and were able to extinguish the blaze in about 15 minutes, said Inspector Chris Button. Although Goff was not permitted to battle the flames, he assisted the firefighters in setting up hoses and locating the woman’s back bedroom.

Three firefighters were treated for minor injuries at the scene.

Smoke-blackened tile from the roof was strewn over an otherwise neat lawn and pruned rose bushes in front of the house where the woman had lived for more than 10 years. Soot covered the yellow Cadillac that she drove to the supermarket, beauty parlor and dog groomer.

And where once stood dozens of knickknacks that her late husband--a former Air Force pilot--had brought her from his travels around the world, there was only soggy, charred rubble Tuesday.

“I felt like I had to come say goodby,” said Betty Whitham, a neighbor who was allowed by firefighters to walk through the gutted structure.

“She’ll be missed,” said another neighbor, Mike Kienitz. “It’s not a good way to end the year.”