The Associated Press

NEWTON, Mass. — A fire in Newton has claimed the life of an elderly woman and sent her blind son and two firefighters to the hospital.

The blaze started at about 4:30 a.m. Friday on the first floor of a duplex on Ashmont Avenue.

Fire Chief Joe LaCroix said the first firefighters on scene met the woman's son out front, who told them his mother was upstairs. Lieutenant Doug Quinn and firefighter Mark O'Hare rushed inside and pulled 81-year-old Dorothy Beatrice out a back window.

Beatrice went into cardiac arrest after her rescue and died at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Her son, John Beatrice, is being treated for burns on his hands.

LaCroix said Quinn was admitted to the hospital with second and third degree burns on his arms and neck. O'Hare was treated for less serious burns and released.