Jan. 08--A 50-year-old woman who died early Saturday after her Glen Burnie home caught fire apparently caused the blaze when she used a lighter to look under a bed, firefighters said Tuesday.
Shari Lee DeStefano accidentally set the bed on fire, causing $10,000 in damage and displacing nine other adults and two children, said Division Chief Keith Swindle, Anne Arundel County Fire Department spokesman. This was the second fatal fire in the county this year.
Shortly after 10:20 p.m. Friday, firefighters were called by neighbors to DeStefano's one-story house on Sumac Road in the Marley neighborhood. The first firefighters to arrive saw smoke coming from the home and searched the premises.
Crews found DeStefano in the basement where the fire started.
She was taken to Baltimore Washington Medical Center where she died shortly after midnight from injuries related to the fire.
It took 46 firefighters 34 minutes to bring the blaze under control. Swindle said there were no working smoke detectors in the house.
DeStefano's death follows a Jan. 2 Maryland City mobile home fire that killed one man. His name and the cause of the fire have not been released.
DeStefano left behind three children and a grandson. Her family will receive friends from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at McCully-Polyniak Funeral Home, 237 E. Patapsco Ave. in Brooklyn. Services and interment are private. Family members could not be reached for comment.
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