CHICORA — Three people were forced out of a house this morning after fire broke out in an upstairs bedroom.

Dave Young and his girlfriend and a friend made it out safely about 9 a.m., but they fear they lost most of their belongings in the rental house at 213 W. Slippery Rock St.

They have no insurance. Nor does Harley Flick, the owner of the house.

The state police fire marshal is investigating the cause of the blaze that badly damaged the two-story house.

Chicora firefighters, whose station is fewer than 50 yards always on West Slippery Street, quickly put out the flames.

“The fire was mostly contained to the second-floor rear bedroom,” said Tom Bullman, assistant chief for the Chicora Volunteer Fire Department, ”but a little bit of it got into the attic.”

A damage estimate was not immediately available.

Young said he was in the living room watching television when he heard the smoke detectors sounding. He and friend Pat Kelly of the Wilkes-Barre area in Luzerne County rushed up the steps to investigate.

“I seen the bedroom was engulfed,” Young said.

Kelly was using that spare bedroom during an overnight stay.

He admitted that just before the fire he was in the room and had filled his lighter, which he accidentally dropped on the bed.

He picked it up and went downstairs. Moments later, the smoke detectors went off.

Fire officials did not know if Kelly’s lighter possibly caused the blaze.

The two men and Young’s girlfriend retreated from the house unharmed. Her 11-year-old son, who also lives there, had left for school a short time earlier.