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GREENSBORO — An elderly couple made it out of their smoke-filled home Thursday, thanks in part to a neighbor.

Marion Talton, 76, woke up about 10 a.m. As she went into the bathroom, Talton said, she saw and smelled smoke in the home at 1107 Logan St.

Talton called for her husband, James, 84, and asked him why there was so much smoke in the house.

James Talton had risen earlier but had fallen asleep as he read a newspaper in a front room.

At the same time, their neighbor Rhonda Connor was watching TV when she saw smoke billowing from the Taltons' home. Connor's mother said it might be from a fireplace.

But Connor told her mother it was too much smoke and ran barefoot across the street, yelling for the Taltons to get out of the house.

She ran inside and saw Marion Talton trying to make her way out amid thick smoke.

Connor helped the woman out of her home and yelled for James Talton to get out. He escaped out a side door.

Marion Talton escaped the home barefoot and in her nightgown.

James Talton said he thought a wood stove in the rear of their home may have started the fire.

However, investigators later determined that it was an electrical fire, said David Douglas, assistant chief of the Greensboro Fire Department.

Smoke was still billowing under the roof about 11 a.m. as firefighters worked to put out the blaze.

The home had significant damage and the Taltons were not optimistic that anything could be salvaged.

"Everything is just gone," Marion Talton said.

The couple, who have lived in the home more than 40 years, said they will stay with family or in a house they own next door. However, the side of that house was damaged by heat from the fire.

The Taltons were grateful they made it out of their home.

"Thank the Lord I woke up," Marion Talton said.

Staff Writer Ryan Seals contributed to this report.

Contact Amy Dominello at 373-7091 or adominello@news-record.com