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Bedridden woman dies in fire at her Newton home

Print Posted by Janet Walsh May 30, 2011 12:41 PM

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By John Guilfoil, Globe Staff

NEWTON – A 79-year-old bedridden woman died in a three-alarm fire in her house in the Oak Hill neighborhood of Newton Centre early this morning.

According to Newton Deputy Fire Chief Michael Castro, the call came in shortly after 3 a.m. when a neighbor saw 10-foot flames billowing from the roof of the brick and red wood split-level house at the end of the Cottonwood Road cul-de-sac.

Firefighters found a woman said to be the sole occupant of the house and were unable to save her. Castro said that she was very badly burned.

Neighbor Dan Hart, 66, who lives next door, was watching television when he saw the fire through his bay window. He broke down her door but was immediately pushed back by intense smoke.

“That’s the one good thing about being 275 pounds, you put your shoulder into something and it gives way,” Hart said. “But I have asthma and the smoke was just too intense. Maybe if I had gotten there earlier.”

Castro said the house had working smoke detectors.

The fire appeared to have started in the bedroom. The cause is under investigation by Newton fire and the Office of State Fire Marshall Stephen D. Coan.

Another neighbor, Murray Miller, 66, said the victim had been a widow for the past decade and he remembered her as very friendly and neighborly.

Fire units from Boston, Brookline, Wellesley, Weston, and Waltham provided mutual aid. The last fire units left the scene about 11:30 a.m.