The Lexington Herald-Leader
MONTICELLO, Ky. — A Wayne County woman who had escaped her burning house died early Monday after she went back inside to get something, authorities said.
Irene Thompson, 46, lived in Span Hill, about 5 miles northeast of Monticello.
A neighbor driving past about 5 a.m. noticed the house was on fire and woke Thompson and her sister, Helen Dowdy, who shared the residence. Both women got out, but Thompson, who had Down syndrome, went back inside.
Jerry Ferrell, chief of the Monticello Fire Department, said a neighbor tried to get into the house, but heat and smoke drove him back.
Firefighters found Thompson’s body on the floor of her bedroom. Medical examiners will perform an autopsy Tuesday to determine how she died, said Wayne County Coroner Forrest Hicks.
Dowdy was treated for burns. She was not badly burned, Ferrell said.
Ferrell said the fire started in the area of a space heater that might have malfunctioned. State police and the state Fire Marshal’s Office are investigating the cause of the blaze in the 100-year-old house.