With winter weather just around the corner, many people are starting to heat their homes.

On Wednesday, what could have ended badly for a soon-to-be mom has turned into an important lesson during the upcoming cold months. A small fire broke out just before 10:30 p.m. in the 52000-block of Prescott Avenue near Brick Road in St. Joseph County.

A woman, seven-months pregnant, was sleeping inside the home at the time, but she was able to get out safely.

Fire crews from the scene say some fire wood was sitting too close to a wood-burning stove, and it caught fire, filling the house with smoke. They were able to keep the fire contained to just the kitchen.

Firefighters say this serves as a reminder to use wood stoves with caution.

"We'll typically run three or four of these types of incidents in a year's time,” said Mike Gerndt, battalion chief for Clay Fire Territory. “Fortunately, it's not as common as it used to be because there aren't as many wood burning stoves as there used to be … If you have a wood burning stove, keep combustibles away from the wood burning stove, obviously they're remitting heat and that heat will spread to those combustibles and will end up with an incident much like we had tonight."

The homeowner was taken to the hospital for safety precautions. Officials say she suffered from smoke inhalation.

While there is no structural damage to the home, there was some smoke damage.

Reported by www.wndu.com