The improper disposal of a cigarette created a fire causing $ 90,000 of damage in a duplex late Monday evening.

According to a press release from the Pullman Fire Department, two of the duplex residents at 320 NW Harrison St. said they were smoking and put their cigarettes in a metal can framed in a wooden box. The cigarettes were hot enough to start the wood on fire, which ignited the porch and spread to beams under the house.

Firefighters were called out at 11:31 p.m. and the occupants initially told them the fire was out. However, when the firefighters first arrived, there were flames and smoke on the front porch. The fire had spread through a crawl space beneath the duplex and firefighters had to cut through the floors to extinguish the fire.

According to the release, a young boy in the duplex smelled smoke and woke up his mother who then exited the back door with her two children.

The mother alerted the other two residents of the duplex who escaped through the front door and porch, which was still ablaze. The male occupant suffered smoke inhalation from going back in the building for some personal items and was treated by paramedics at the scene.

Firefighters were at the scene past 2 a.m.

Reporting by Dennis Farrell