Quick-thinking neighbors — including a professional tree climber — helped save a woman who was trapped atop a blazing home on Mt. Aldworth Road in Vineyard Haven Monday afternoon.

Jonathan Megidesh, who lives on nearby Hinckley Circle, told the Gazette Tuesday that he was driving home from work shortly before 4 p.m. when he noticed increasing smoke in the neighborhood.

Parking his truck at home, Mr. Megidesh said, he bicycled toward the smoke and found a small group of people in front of the burning house at 55 Mt. Aldworth.

Emergency medical services from both Tisbury and Tri-Town Ambulance responded. — Mark Alan Lovewell

“They looked a little frantic,” Mr. Megidesh said. “I hopped the wall and ran up there.”

On the upper deck of the home, he said, two men were attempting without success to assist an elderly woman down a ladder to the ground as the flames continued to spread.

“The house was half on fire,” Mr. Megidesh said. “It was coming quickly.”

An arborist by trade — he is the lead climber for Beetlebung Tree Service in West Tisbury — Mr. Megidesh quickly scaled the ladder and the two other rescuers placed the woman in his arms.

“I had them hand her to me [and] I carried her down the ladder,” he said.

Mr. Megidesh then handed the woman to deputy Tisbury fire chief Patrick Rolston, the first official responder to the scene.

“She didn’t want to let go,” Mr. Megidesh said. “I could tell she was very, very frightened.”

The victim was taken by ambulance to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital; a spokesman for the hospital confirmed Tuesday that she had been discharged in good condition.

The one-alarm fire was quickly brought under control by the Tisbury fire department, Deputy Chief Rolston told the Gazette.

“The first truck on the scene pretty much knocked it down in the first eight to 10 minutes,” the deputy chief said. “We did some interior attack after that.”

Firefighters from Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, along with emergency medical services from both Tisbury and Tri-Town Ambulance, also responded to the fire, the deputy chief said.

The Salvation Army and the Red Cross were on the scene at the fire, which left the house uninhabitable, according to the deputy fire chief.

He said the damage could have been much worse if the property had not been well shielded by trees from Monday’s heavy, gusty winds.

“That was my initial concern when the call came in,” he said. “[Wind] could have played a huge factor.”

The wind did ignite a nearby wooded area, but that blaze also was quickly extinguished, the deputy chief said.

Officially reported at 3:52 p.m., the house fire was declared under control at 4:37 p.m. and all personnel were released at 5:39 p.m., according to a report Mr. Rolston posted on the Tisbury municipal website Tuesday.

The cause of the blaze, which appeared to be located in the kitchen area on the main floor of the three-level home, remains under investigation, Deputy Chief Rolston told the Gazette.