Fire Claims New York Wheel Chair Bound Woman

A 75-year-old wheelchair-bound woman was killed yesterday afternoon by a smoky fire in her East Side apartment.

Ruth Hennard died of smoke inhalation in the one-alarm blaze, which broke out in the living room of her apartment on the top floor of a 14-story building at 211 E. 53rd St.

The elderly woman, who was missing a leg and used a motorized wheelchair, was found in the bedroom and was pronounced dead at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Her daughter, Victoria, was at work at the time.

Fire marshals were trying to determine the cause of the blaze.