An elderly woman died in a fire at 117 West 19th in Hutchinson.
117 West 19th in Hutchinson
Fire Chief Kim Forbes says it appears the fire occurred late Wednesday night and says a family member discovered the woman shortly before 4 p-m, Thursday afternoon. He then called 911 and fire officials and EMT’s responded to the home.
Forbes says the fire appears to have been in the living room area of the home. He says there was extreme heat damage from the cushions, such as sponge rubber which he says produces thick black smoke and believes the victim died from smoke inhalation.
They doesn’t appear at this point to be anything suspicious with the fire, but they did have the Kansas Fire Marshal on scene Thursday evening to assist in the investigation. Forbes says they want to cover all the bases, especially in light of the fire that killed two people a couple of weeks ago, just a block and half away at 19th & Main.
19th Street was blocked from Washington to Adams throughout Thursday.
Hutchinson Police Detectives were also on scene to help with the initial investigation, however they left the scene once they began to believe the death was an accident. Death Scene Investigator John Tracy was also called to the scene.
The fire apparently burned itself out with no one in the neighborhood noticing anything unusual. There was no outward appearance of fire with the home, however it did appear to have some soot on the windows.
No name has been released, nor has the cause of the fire been determined at this point.
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