UPDATE: Fire At Her Back, Woman Leaps

UPDATE: The woman has been identified as Sandra Brawn, a media specialist at Grafton Elementary School. She is 67.

As flames ravaged her home at 13 Oak St. in the pre-dawn hours, a woman jumped from the second floor onto a landing below.

And when she landed, she was met by two members of the

One of them, Officer Mark Benoit, has become familiar with these type of rescues. .

This time, he tried to get into the burning home but was turned back because of the extreme heat, he said.

“There was no way we could get in,’’ Benoit said.

Then he heard a window being pushed out, followed by a thud. The sound was the woman, estimated to be in her mid-60s, landing after jumping 10 to 12 feet.

He and Sgt. Michael Mazzola helped to carry her across the street, where they waited for the ambulance.

The woman said the smoke detectors woke her. “The fire was right at her back,’’ he said.

Her bedroom was in the rear second floor, Mazzola said. That gave her precious seconds, he said, because the fire was most immediately intense at the front of the building.

Her decision to jump probably saved her life, Mazzola said. “She did the right thing,’’ he said.

“She never would have gotten out’’ otherwise, he said. “It didn’t take long [for the fire] to be fully involved.’’

He was driving by the area when the 911 call came in about 5:50 a.m. “I turned my head and saw the smoke,’’ he said. He immediately headed to the scene.

The woman was transported to a hospital. Her condition is unknown, but Mazzola thinks she may have broken her hip. She was unable to walk.

Still, if she hadn’t had the presence of mind to jump, and if the officers hadn’t reached the scene immediately to help her, the outcome could have been tragic.

“In the dark, she could have landed on her neck,’’ Mazzola said.