Elderly woman killed, 2 firefighters injured in Newton blaze

(Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

Dorothy "Dottie" Beatrice died this morning after a fire ripped through her longtime family home on Ashmont Avenue.

By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

NEWTON -- Two firefighters suffered severe burns early this morning when they ran through flames and smoke to try to save an elderly woman who had collapsed on the second floor of a family duplex.

The firefighters were able to pull 85-year-old Dorothy "Dottie" Beatrice out of a rear window, but she went into cardiac arrest and died at a local hospital, said Chief Joseph LaCroix of the Newton Fire Department.

Lieutenant Doug Quinn and Firefighter Mark O’Hare lost their helmets as they ran up the flaming stairwell in an attempt to save Beatrice. Quinn suffered second- and third-degree burns on his arms, neck, and ears and was rushed to the burn unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Firefighter Mark O’Hare sustained similar burns but was not as badly injured. He is expected to be released from the hospital today, LaCroix said.

The family has been a fixture on Ashmont Avenue for decades, occupying two large buildings that neighbors call the Beatrice compound. That allowed Dottie Beatrice to live with in an arm’s reach of 15 grandchildren.

Jeff Beatrice, who lived in the house next door with his 11 children, said this morning that some of the firefighters knew his mother from growing up in the neighborhood.

“Everybody felt like she was their mother when they were around her,” Jeff Beatrice said. He described Dottie Beatrice as a dynamic 85-year-old woman who drove her own car and was constantly on the go.

“She seemed to be young at heart,” said a neighbor, Melissa Angelucci.

Flames billowed out of a shattered picture window when firefighters arrived at the duplex on Ashmont Avenue at 4:30 a.m. after a neighbor called 911. John Beatrice, a blind man in his 50s, met Quinn and the front steps and told him that his mother was trapped inside.

“The fire was advancing, and he knew he couldn’t wait for the hose,” LaCroix said.

Quinn and O’Hare found Dottie Beatrice unconscious on a second floor landing. The flames were so intense they could not go back down the stairs and ran to the back of the building, LaCroix said.

The fire started in a front room on the first floor and remains under investigation.

“Right now it really looks accidental -- there are no red flags that say it was arson -- but the cause has not yet been determined," LaCroix said.

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