Glen Rock, Pa. - Careless smoking sparked a two-alarm house fire in southern York County on Tuesday morning, according to investigators.

Fire crews say snow made fighting the fire in Springfield Township even tougher. The fire hydrant closest to the home on Oakwood Drive was buried under several feet. Firefighters said they wasted precious time finding it and digging it out.

Loganville Fire Chief Rodney Miller said a caretaker rescued the elderly woman who lived in the home. "The caretaker went to the hospital with smoke inhalation; lost two dogs, possibly a cat."

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Miller said the fire started in a bedroom, likely as the result of smoking in bed.

Neighbors did not want to speak on camera, but said they saw heavy, black smoke blow past their windows and feared the fire may spread to their homes. When they found out the cause of the fire, they said they knew the elderly woman in the home to be a heavy smoker.

Firefighters rushed to the scene, but the snow slowed them down. They said no one shoveled out the hydrant just three houses away.

"We thought it was over here to the left and luckily the neighbor came out and said 'I think it's on the other side of the sign,' " said Tom Frantz, a Loganville firefighter who helped dig out the hydrant.

Frantz and Alan Nelson spent about four minutes shoveling away snow. "In the initial fire, that's a valuable three or four minutes," Miller said.

"We're packed up in gear with air packs on and all ready to go in a structure, and then you're spending half your energy shoveling," Nelson said. "So we got spent by the time we got up to the fire scene."

"We called more tanker trucks in because we couldn't find it initially. Once we did find it, we were able to hook up to it and have plenty of water, but it was a challenge in the beginning," Miller said.

Once the hydrant was cleared, Miller said many tankers called out in the second alarm were turned around. He called it an important reminder to dig out hydrants. "It's always a concern and you hope it never happens, but unfortunately, sometimes, it does. And this was just one of those unfortunate circumstances," he said.

Fire officials believe the elderly woman is doing okay. Family members had no comment.

Miller said the reason his department could not find the hydrant was because it was missing the indicator stick, a tall stick with a reflective piece on top used to help find hydrants in snow or in the dark. He said he doesn't know why it is missing.