Firefighters respond to a house fire in Fairview Township. The two homeowners were able to escape without injury. The blaze started in a bathroom light fixture before spreading to the laundry room.

FAIRVIEW TWP — Two homeowners on Greenhill Road managed to get out of their house safely after a fire started in a bathroom light fixture late Thursday afternoon.

But firefighters say the blaze, which spread from the bathroom into a laundry room within the below-grade, ranch-style home, resulted in heavy smoke and water damage throughout the home, making it “unlivable.”

Petrolia Fire Chief Chuck Barnes said the fire began shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday, in a fan and light fixture in the bathroom of the home at 118 Greenhill Road. Homeowner Nancy Hutchison said she and her husband, Lyle, were home at the time the blaze started. Hutchison said she was laying in bed when Lyle mentioned smelling smoke, and when the two went to the bathroom they found the light fixture and the ceiling of the room on fire.

Hutchison said both were able to make it out of the home in time and no people or pets were injured.

Firefighters spent more than an hour knocking down the fire and investigating the incident, which Barnes said was “not suspicious at all.”

Chicora, Petrolia and Bruin fire departments responded.