Tami Howard of Eugene awoke, startled by the yelling from her neighbors outside her second-story bedroom window.

“It took awhile for it to register that they were saying ‘Get out. Get out,’?” Howard recounted early Tuesday.

Howard lives in a Whiteaker neighborhood rental home that was damaged by a fire late Monday night. The fire displaced Howard and four of her neighbors, including one who was injured. The fire also killed a dog and led to the temporary disappearance of one of Howard’s cats.

“I’m going to go and look for him now,” she said Tuesday morning, standing in front of the house. “Then I’m going to put up fliers in the neighborhood.”

Early Tuesday evening, a neighbor who had seen one of the fliers heard the feline’s meow from under a bush, and called Howard. She and her cat, a 19-pound, long-haired, black-and-white male named Dugan, were reunited shortly thereafter.

The fire started about 11:40 p.m. on the front porch of the house at 831 W. Fifth Ave. The 109-year-old structure contains three apartments, two on the ground floor, with Howard’s unit upstairs.

The flames moved quickly, blocking the front doors of the three apartments, Eugene Springfield Fire Battalion Chief Lance Lighty said.

“It was one of those fires that developed really fast,” he said. “It had blocked the front exits, and it put people’s lives in jeopardy.”

Howard’s neighbors had gotten out of their apartments in different ways. A couple with a 2-year-old child who lived in a first-floor unit had access to a back door. Another tenant, a woman, whose front door was blocked by the fire, got out through a first-floor window.

But Howard and her dog and two cats were trapped on the second floor. The fire had climbed the outside staircase leading to her door, preventing her from exiting.

Howard’s neighbors and bystanders had gathered outside her bedroom window with an aluminum extension ladder. They yelled at her to climb out the window and descend on the ladder.

But first, Howard had to get her Australian shepherd, Kona, to safety. Thinking she had no choice, Howard dropped him out the window to the people more than 10 feet below.

The dog was shaken up, but not seriously hurt, Howard said. Neighbors partially broke the 65-pound-dog’s fall, she said.

Howard was worried about her cats, but knew she had to leave the apartment quickly.

She left them behind, “which made me feel like a horrible person,” Howard said.

Firefighters arrived about the time Howard climbed down the ladder.

“The firemen were wonderful,” she said. “They went up the staircase and got the cats.”

Meanwhile, the tenant who escaped through the first-floor window hurt her arm. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, Lighty said.

A dog that belonged to the family on the first floor was found dead inside their apartment, he said.

The fire destroyed the porch and front parts of the house, Lighty said. A black Honda that was parked in front of the house also was destroyed.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, said Al Gerard, Eugene Springfield fire marshal.

In a preliminary estimate, firefighters said the fire caused $105,000 damage to the house, Lighty said.

American Red Cross volunteers responded, helping Howard and the other tenants to find overnight lodging.

“The Red Cross was amazing,” Howard said. “The two ladies who left their homes at 2 a.m. and came here found a hotel that would take my dog, my cat and myself.”

Follow Ed on Twitter @edwardrusso. Email ed.russo@registerguard.com.