One dead in apartment blaze in SE Houston

HOUSTON Investigators are trying to determine what caused the fire that apparently killed a 65-year-old woman in a first floor apartment. According to officials, firefighters received a call at 2:08pm. When they arrived on the scene just minutes later, they pulled one woman from the apartment, but she had already died.

The woman was the only person in the apartment at the time, and she was apparently not ambulatory on her own, and unable to escape.

One eyewitness said, "When it caught on fire, you know, the youngsters, the young boys back there, started breaking the windows, trying to get in. But the smoke got up too big, to where she just laid there, and they couldn't get in to get to her."

The cause has not yet been determined, but investigators do know the fire began in the same room where the woman was found.

Firefighters were able to contain the fire to a single unit. Three residents live in the apartment, but neither the 65-year-old woman's daughter nor another person who lived in the unit was home when the fire broke out.

One firefighter, a 12-year veteran, suffered minor burns on his hands. He was transported to Hermann Hospital, but he's expected to be fine.