DERBY, Conn. -- When a fire started in a house on Hawkins Street, Carmen Perez, a neighbor, said a friend of hers rescued six people.

Fire officials said the fire began on the first floor in the rear of the home.

A woman and five children were rescued from the house, said Perez, but the woman had initially refused to leave.

“She didn’t come out with the kids,” she said. “She said, ‘If I burn, I burn with everything in the house.’"

Fire officials said the woman and one of the children had to be treated for smoke inhalation. They were taken to Griffin Hospital, officials said.

Derby fire officials called for support from neighboring towns as they battled the flames.

The intense flames that melted a cast iron grill were somewhere between 1,500 and 1,700 degrees, officials said.