Son’s pipe caused Newton fire that killed grandmother, 85

(Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

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

By Globe Staff

The fire that killed the 85-year-old matriarch of a large Newton family was inadvertently caused by her son, who left a smoldering pipe in the pocket of a jacket hung in a living room closet, according to a release today from the State Fire Marshal.

The fire Friday on Ashmont Avenue was allowed to spread undetected by a lack of smoke detectors, according to investigators, who found only one battery-operated smoke alarm in the basement of the duplex.

“While working smoke alarms cannot guarantee escape, they can provide the one thing you don’t have in a fire -- time,” said Fire Chief Joseph LaCroix in a statement.

The blaze killed Dorothy “Dottie” Beatrice and seriously burned two firefighters, who ran up a burning stairway to try to save her. The family has been a fixture on Ashmont Avenue for decades, occupying two large buildings that allowed Dottie Beatrice to live next door to 15 grandchildren.

While the fire marshal’s release did not mention John Beatrice by name, it said the most probable cause of the fire was improper use of smoking materials, citing an ember from a pipe. After the fire, Jeffrey Beatrice said his brother, John, told him that a spark had somehow ignited his jacket. John Beatrice, 61, has been blind since birth and lived with his mother.

"The improper use and disposal of smoking materials has been the leading cause of fatal fires since World War II," State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said in a statement.

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