Cigarettes and Oxygen Therapy Fuel Fatal Fire in Pennsylvania

March 20, 2009

A deputy coroner says a northwestern Pennsylvania woman on oxygen therapy started the house fire that caused her death by lighting up a cigarette that ignited the gas.

Crawford County deputy coroner Scott Schell says 76-year-old Marian Magee died of her injuries at Titusville Hospital Wednesday afternoon.

Schell says Magee was pulled from her burning home in Hydetown. Her husband was out of the house when the fire started.

Hydetown is about 85 miles north of Pittsburgh.

State police have ruled the fire an accident caused by careless smoking.