Local firefighters quickly extinguished a fire that broke out in the basement of a two-story home on Village Street early this morning that fire officials said was especially dangerous because of disabled gas lines.

According to Fire Capt. Michael Porter, at 7:08 a.m., local firefighters responded to 108 Village St. after a neighbor reported seeing a fire in the basement.

Porter said a handful of firefighters, along with Fire Capt. Scot Murray, who was the incident commander, used flame-retardant foam to knock down the blaze which was melting plastic pipes and had disabled the shut-off valves for a major gas line into the house.

"The guys did a fantastic job, they knocked it down really quickly and it’s a good thing they were able to get it put out as fast as they did because after everything was said and done we found out the individual shut off valves for a gas line in the basement had all burned off," Porter said. "It was that close to having one of those lines letting go, which would have been really dangerous."

Several of the home's second-floor were smashed out in an effort to put out the fire.

Fire Chief Jason Gilliland was also on scene Monday morning. Porter said fire investigators will continue to probe the fire throughout the day today and the displaced residents will stay at the Harbor Light Inn tonight as part of the fire department's First Night's on Us Program.