SPRINGFIELD TWP, Mercer County — An elderly woman was burned but managed to escape her burning two-story house Monday afternoon.

Carol Moore, 76, was flown to a Pittsburgh hospital’s burn unit with “moderate burn injuries” following the fire about 3:10 p.m., state police said. Her condition was not known this morning.

Moore’s longtime house on Route 19 was destroyed in the fast-moving blaze that started on the first floor, said Chief Micah Swartz of the Springfield Township Volunteer Fire Department.

More than 50 firefighters from 11 companies in three counties, including Butler, battled the fire for about two hours.

The state police fire marshal’s office in Butler is investigating but the blaze was not considered suspicious, authorities said.

Fire officials conceded that due to the extensive damage, a cause may never be known. The house is insured.

The Mercer County 911 center initially received a call from a passing motorists who reported fire coming from the house, which is across the road from Rachel’s Roadhouse

A manager at the restaurant who knows Swartz also notified the fire chief, who was at work about one-half mile away.

“(The manager) knows Carol lived there and requested a welfare check when he saw smoke around the house,” he said.

By the time Swartz drove there in his own truck, the flames had taken hold.

“Fire was showing on the first floor and shooting out the windows and front door,” he said.

Swartz, who also knows Moore, saw that she was out of the house, where she lived alone. He spoke briefly with her and noticed her burns.

An ambulance crew arrived and tended to her before she was taken to the Grove City Airport, where a medical helicopter flew her to West Penn Hospital.

The roof of the more than 100-year-old wood-frame house collapsed onto the second floor, which then caved onto the first floor, fire officials said.

Most of the fire was extinguished in about 30 minutes. But hot spots kept firefighters busy for another 90 minutes or so.

Assisting the Springfield VFD were firefighters from East End, Pine Township, Grove City, Jackson Center and Jefferson Township in Mercer County; Slippery Rock and Harrisville in Butler County; and Volant, New Wilmington, and Scott Township in Lawrence County.