With a working smoke detector on her side, a 20-year-old Rock Falls woman’s chances of escaping an apartment fire last week were greatly improved.

The early Friday morning blaze in the 300 block of downtown Rock Falls destroyed the two-story building where she lived. Two residents in one upstairs apartment noticed the fire and got out without injury, but it wasn’t so easy for Holly Spatz.

Spatz said she was awakened about 3:20 a.m. by the smell of smoke. She opened the bedroom door in her second-story apartment and heard the smoke detector. She called 911, and a dispatcher told her to check the apartment’s exit doors.