A group of family members were playing cards on Saturday night when they heard a "bang," followed shortly by alarms that alerted them to a fire inside the doorway of a Butterfield Street home.

Elaine Pelchat said her husband William has owned the home at 64 Butterfield St., for about 30 years. No one was hurt.

Elaine and William live on the second floor, their son lives on the first floor and their daughter lives on the third floor, she said.

William Pelchat's sister, Sandra Marzden, said family members were on the second floor, where Elaine and William live, playing cards, when they heard a "bang." Moments later the fire alarm went off, and the hallway was filled with smoke when they looked outside the second-floor unit.

A fire was burning in the stairway near front door of the well-kept 2 1/2 story home in the city's Acre section.

Marzden said she and others grabbed snow from outside and threw it on the fire, but could still see flames under the stairs.

Firefighters were called to the home at 8:57 p.m., and only needed 10 or 15 minutes to control the fire, according to Deputy Fire Chief Michael Cushing.

No one was hurt, and the home remains habitable with damage confined to the area around where the fire started, he said.

Cushing said the cause is under investigation.

Firefighters called a fire investigation unit to the scene, and they were still working