South Carolina Woman Dies After Being Burned in Fire in September

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- A Batesburg-Leesville, S.C., woman has died in a hospital here, more than three months after she was burned in a fire that killed her four children.

Natasha Pearce, 24, died Monday night at Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital.

A graveside service was scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at Tabernacle Baptist Church cemetery, the Rev. Dennis Jackson said.

Pearce will be buried near her children, who died in the Sept. 11 fire that destroyed the family's home. They were 5-year-old twins Keanna and Teanna; Mia, 3, and Isaiah, 2.

``She's with her babies,'' said Pearce's mother, Ellen Heyward of Gaston.

Pearce had a rare lung disease probably triggered by the fire, Heyward said.

Pearce had been in critical condition at the burn center after suffering third-degree burns over 78 percent of her body. She had been kept mostly in a medically induced coma to keep her from moving and help her recover.

Pearce had suffered from pneumonia, undergone at least 30 operations and was expected to undergo more.

Related:

• Four Children Die In Mobile Home Blaze