A two-alarm predawn fire in north Corvallis displaced a family, but firefighters saved half the house, a computer, wedding dress and some furry residents.

Corvallis firefighters had pulled back from the inferno early Monday morning but plunged inside when they spotted a terrified cat in the window of a burning upstairs bedroom.

The five people asleep in the house, alerted by a smoke alarm, managed to escape the north Corvallis house when they noticed it was on fire about 4 a.m. Monday.

Jackie Eaton, 24, and her fiancé, Nick Lahanas, 21, her two daughters and Eaton’s mother all were asleep in the house they’d rented at 3134 N.W. Ninth St. in Corvallis, just south of Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

Eaton’s two girls, ages 4 and 6, were sleeping downstairs with their grandmother, who was visiting from Newberg to help them get settled into the house that they’d moved into a month ago.

Lahanas said he ran to the top of the stairs and looked down to the front door.

“The smoke was pretty thick,” he said. “There was fire on the inside of the door at the bottom of the stairs and the glass was broken out.”

Lahanas and Eaton rushed downstairs to help the girls and Eaton’s mother out of the house. They went to a neighbor’s house and called 911, then Lahanas went back to try to tame the fire with a garden hose. They could not find their two cats.

Lahanas, a records clerk at the Corvallis Clinic, said a 7-foot by 12-foot area of the front wall and door were on fire, but he thought he was making progress. A police officer arrived and told Lahanas to get away from the flames, and he did but he said the fire again took hold as the firefighters hooked up hoses to the hydrant.

“We were sitting on the curb just watching it happen,” Lahanas said.

The blaze quickly went to two alarms, said Corvallis Fire Department spokesman Jim Patton. In all, five engine companies, a ladder truck and two ambulances went to the scene. Adair Village and Philomath firefighters covered the emptied Corvallis stations.

The firefighters were directing water at the flames both inside and on the exterior, but they backed out for a few minutes because the blaze was growing so fast. But then, firefighters saw one of the two cats pressed up against an upstairs bedroom window in fear.

Firefighters entered the burning house and went up to the second floor to save the cat. Lahanas found their other cat behind the garage Monday afternoon. He said Tuesday that they both used five of their nine lives.

Firefighters knocked down the flames and brought the fire under control in 20 minutes.

Most of the damage was to the second floor. Tuesday, the upper story was a mess of charred, crumbling walls, a gaping hole in the roof and little else.

“Upstairs was a total loss,” Lahanas said. “The girls have a few stuffed animals but all their clothes and toys are gone.” Most of the electronics and furniture downstairs were either burned by fire or soaked by water. But their computer may be salvageable.

“(Firefighters) did a really nice thing,” Lahanas said. “They pulled out the computer and put it in the garage during the fire.”

Patton said the fire appeared to have started on the front porch of the house. Firefighters said that someone had been smoking in that area, but the cause of the fire had not yet been determined.

Diane Amoth of Corvallis, who owns the house, said Tuesday that a salvage company still is calculating the damage estimate. Don Boots of Steamway Disaster Restorations said that although the second floor is a total loss, much of the ground floor might be restored.

Lahanas and Eaton have contacted the American Red Cross, which provided money for food and clothing.

Lahanas said they are staying with his parents in Corvallis until they are able to recover — a process that already has begun. First, they need to find another wedding dress for Jackie. The fire melted its plastic bag onto the dress, ruining it — but not the plans for the Aug. 9 ceremony.

“It will be on the same day, same time and same place — just a different dress,” Lahanas said.