A WSU student walking her dog Sunday spotted smoke coming from the third floor of the Marriott Residence Inn, which is under construction beside the Student Recreation Center. Pullman fire officials credit her with preventing serious fire damage to the building.

Senior accounting major Amy Winsor called 9-1-1 at about 2 p.m. immediately after spotting what looked like steam. First to respond was a WSU Police officer, who saw flames upon arriving at the scene.

“I didn’t want to call 9-1-1 at first because I didn’t want to be the person who called the fire department about steam coming out of a building!” Winsor said. “I decided to, though, because I would feel really dumb if it burnt to the ground and I didn’t do anything.”

The hotel, at 1255 NE Fairway Rd., may have caught fire when a temporary exhaust pipe vibrated loose from a natural gas heater, which the construction crew had placed in a stairwell, according to a press release by Fire Information Officer Glenn Johnson.

Johnson described the exhaust pipe as “almost like a blowtorch.”

Firefighters forced entry into the building and quickly extinguished the fire, which was confined to wood directly surrounding the heater.

There were two other temporary heaters near the stairwell, but the fire was confined to the third floor of the 131-room hotel scheduled to open in June, according to the hotel website.

Fire officials estimate the cost of damage to be around $2,000.

“I’m glad I was able to help and hopefully prevent any huge setbacks with construction!” Winsor said. “I want my parents to stay there for graduation, so I need it to get done on time!”