CENTER TWP — It's been a tough and trying two weeks for Doris Reges.

Last week a flood forced her from her home. Then, a fire Wednesday chased her out.

But through it all, the feisty 89-year-old Reges, who lives alone and uses a walker to get around, has stood the test.

“The Lord's still with me,” she said, seated in the back of an ambulance after her latest ordeal.

Reges escaped shaken but unscathed and in stocking feet shortly before 11 a.m. when fire started at her elevated ranch-style house on Glenwood Way at Route 38 in Center Township.

“I seen the smoke and I took off,” she said. “I went out the kitchen door and backed onto the porch. A stranger was in my driveway and he helped me off the steps.”

The stranger apparently happened to be driving by when he saw smoke coming from the woman's house.

Mike Iscrupe, an assistant chief with the Unionville Volunteer Fire Department, arrived in time to also help Reges from her porch.

“Smoke was coming from the north side of the house,” Iscrupe said. A crew armed with a hose line went inside and within 20 minutes the fire was out.

Smoke and fire damage, he said, was confined to two back bedrooms.

The state police fire marshal is investigating, but Iscrupe said the blaze appeared to be accidental.

Reges said she believes she knows what started it.

She was cleaning up, she recounted, and lit a match to look in the closet of one of the bedrooms. The light bulb was out in the closet.

“I laid the match down and evidently I didn't put it out,” Reges said. “Next thing I knew,” she said, “I seen smoke coming down the hallway.”

She got out as quickly as she could.

A Butler Ambulance Service medic tended to Reges, checking her blood pressure and offering her water and comfort.

“Bless you all,” she repeatedly said to emergency crews who provided assistance.

A damage estimate was not immediately available. Iscrupe said he thought the house was salvageable. Reges expects for the time being to be required to live with one of her children.

The mother of seven, she has lived at her own home for nearly 70 years.

“Since 1949,” she said, matter of factly. Most of that time was spent with her husband. Since his death about 20 years ago, it's just been her in the home.

She was alone on the early morning of Sept. 10 when heavy rains caused severe flooding across parts of the county. Reges was not spared.

“I was in the kitchen and saw the water.” It seemed like it was everywhere.”

Reges didn't know the exact time. “But it was dark,” she remembered.

She grabbed “a bunch of clothes” and called her grandson in West Sunbury. He, in turn, phoned 911 for help.

Unionville firefighters got the call just before 1 a.m.

Nathan Wulff, Unionville's chief, said Reges' house was surrounded by 1½ to 2 feet of water.

Eventually, Butler County's Water Rescue Team 300 sent in an inflatable boat to rescue her. She later was taken to a relative's home.