Elderly woman dies in blaze
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An elderly woman hobbled by arthritis and an injured foot died in a Thursday afternoon fire at her Jackson Avenue home.
Two firefighters rushed to rescue the 84-year-old woman, identified by family members and neighbors as Dorothy Black, but were pushed back by the blaze when they were burned by falling embers from the roof, Baton Rouge Fire Department spokesman Barry Mounce said.
Both firefighters, who suffered second- and third-degree burns on their necks and ears, were taken to a hospital.
The neighbors said they reported the fire at 2920 Jackson Ave. blaze at 1:48 p.m. and firefighters arrived two minutes later. The neighbors said they told the firefighters that Black, who mostly stayed indoors because of crippling arthritis pain, was still inside.
“They knew somebody was in there,” Mounce said. “They were trying to get in there. It was just too hot.”
Investigators have not determined what sparked the blaze, but determined it to be accidental, Mounce said. The fire demolished the back part of the house where it started in a storage room, but left the front mostly unaffected.
Mounce said that because the fire started at the back of the peach-colored house, it likely had been burning for a while before smoke and flames were noticed by a passerby who kicked in the front door to look for Black in the smoke-filled living room.
Black, a retired nurse, had lived in the home since the 1960s, said Patricia Norwood, her only child who was one of several relatives watching from a nearby porch as firefighters completed their work.
Norwood left her mother at home Thursday morning when she went to work at her job in a hospital dining area, she said. Relatives who live in the area called to tell her about the fire.
Norwood moved in with her mother about two years ago when Black’s health started to fail, she said. Black’s arthritis and a bad foot limited her mobility, Norwood said, and would have made it difficult for her to escape the fire.
The elderly and children are at greatest risk in a fire because of their inability to get out of a house before a fire gets out of control, Mounce said. They usually succumb to smoke inhalation, he said.
Mounce said that’s why smoke alarms are needed to provide an early warning.
Mounce said firefighters had not determined if smoke alarms were in Black’s house.
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