83-YEAR-OLD WOMAN DIES IN HOUSE FIRE

Bridget Fath lived alone. The 83-year-old woman died that way, too, in a fire that gutted her old, white-frame home at 547 S. Benton early Friday.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter said the woman died of smoke inhalation.

Her body was found on the floor next to her bedroom window. "It looked like she tried to get up and get out of bed," he said.

The blaze started in the vicinity of a wood-burning stove at the rear of the one-story frame house.

Thirteen firefighters and three fire trucks were called to the scene. It took about two hours to extinguish the blaze.

Fath's death marked the first fire fatality in Cape Girardeau this year. The city had one fatal fire last year.

Friday's fire was reported at 3:48 a.m. and firefighters were on the scene within minutes. But it was already too late.

Neighbor Harold Pruitt said a police officer awakened him just before firefighters arrived at the scene.

Pruitt said flames were coming out of the windows of his neighbor's house. Pruitt said the fire threatened his own frame home at 545 S. Benton for a time. "The side of my house was smoking," he said.

Fire Chief Robert Ridgeway said firefighters couldn't have saved her. "There was no chance," he said. "We were on the scene within two to three minutes and the house was totally involved."

The house apparently didn't have a smoke alarm. "If there was a smoke detector and it would have gone off, she probably would have had time to get out," Ridgeway said.

Assistant Fire Chief Max Jauch told reporters, "It's a great tragedy for this neighborhood.

"It is senseless, something that should never have happened," he said as he stood on the street in front of the charred remains of the tin-roofed house.

Only hours after the fire, city officials were proceeding to condemn the house and have it torn down.

Authorities said the house may have been about 100 years old. It was in poor condition. Much of the wood had rotted.

Fath grew up in the house. The house at one time had been a duplex. But for the last 20 or 30 years, Fath had been its sole occupant.

She lived on the north side of the house and used the south end for storage, Pruitt said.

A wood stove provided the only heat for the house.

"She was a nice, old lady," Pruitt recalled and she often called him on the telephone just to chat.

She walked with the aid of a cane. She didn't have a car, but called on taxis when she needed to go to the store.

Fath was a regular churchgoer. She attended St. Mary's Cathedral.

"Her biggest hobby was going to church," Pruitt said.

Pruitt had tried to convince her to go into a nursing home, but she wouldn't hear of it.

"She said she wanted to take care of herself and she pretty well did, too," he said.