BANGOR – Firefighters found an unconscious woman as they were putting out a fire inside her Union Street apartment Tuesday night.

Firefighters discovered the woman and removed her minutes after they had knocked down the fire in the back apartment at 255 Union St., just up the hill from the intersection of Union and Hammond streets, according to a Fire Department official.

Rescue workers then performed CPR on the woman, whose name was not released, and she was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in critical condition, reported Assistant Fire Chief Rick Cheverie.

She remained at the hospital, where Cheverie said she was very ill, although he said he was holding out hope.

“Wherever there’s life, there’s always hope,” Cheverie said late Tuesday night.

The fire occurred in the kitchen and was contained to the woman’s apartment, one of four apartments in the building, according to investigators. Two of the three other residents of the building were home at the time of the fire but weren’t hurt.

Landlord Jay Mishou said he was pretty sure the fourth tenant was at work, but just to be safe, he told firefighters they could break down the tenant’s door. He wasn’t home.

Hours after the fire was put out, investigators were still at the apartment building working to determine what happened.

Bangor police detectives and investigators from the Bangor Fire Department and the State Fire Marshal’s Office jointly investigated the incident and determined that the fire started after the woman left food cooking on the stove.

Leona Gagnon, 79, was the tenant who called 911 about a fire she thought was in her first-floor apartment at the front of the building. Firefighters first went to her apartment, but Cheverie said as he checked behind the apartment building he noticed more smoke.

Cheverie said the fire was called in at 8:19 p.m. and that firefighters arrived within three minutes and had the fire under control at 8:28 p.m.

Gagnon said she was making tea when she first noticed wisps of smoke coming from her cupboard. She left her kitchen briefly and when she went back to check on her tea she found more smoke in the cupboard.

She called 911 and went upstairs to pound on the doors of two of her neighbors, neither of them the woman whose apartment burned, before she headed outside for safety, she said.

A small section of Union Street, from the intersection of Hammond Street to Hudson Street, was blocked off by police and fire vehicles to allow firefighters and investigators to complete their work.