Neighbors Stunned After 70-Year-Old Woman Dies In Ellicott City House Fire
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (WJZ) -- A house fire claims the life of a 70-year-old Ellicott City woman Monday night.
As Mike Schuh reports, neighbors are stunned at how fast the fire spread.
Howard County fire is investigating the cause of a fatal fire that started just after 4 p.m. in the 4500 block of Doncaster Drive.
Neighbors were stunned. Kathy Tripplet's husband saw what happened.
"He had just walked by the house and didn't notice anything and that was like 5 minutes after I came home at 20 after 4," Tripplet said.
Within minutes, the whole house was in flames -- fire coming through the roof when rescuers arrived.
When firefighters arrived a neighbor was in the front yard. He told them he thought the homeowner was home.
"They went in, they made an interior search and they were able to bring out a victim," Assistant Chief Eric Proctor said. "We do have a fatality."
The victim is the 70-year-old homeowner Betty Ann Davis.
One of her two daughters lived with her. She was not injured and is being helped by the American Red Cross.
"It's sad. It's sad to know there was somebody there in the house," Tripplet said. "I've just not seen anything like this."
Neighbors say within the last few years the victim's husband died. They'd lived in here for around 40 years and raised two daughters here.
Howard County is still investigating the cause of the fire.
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