Paraplegic Smoker Dies in Oxygen-Fueled Fire

A 58-year-old paraplegic woman burned to death in her bed after a cigarette she was smoking touched off a flash fire fueled by oxygen from her respirator, the Burbank Fire Department reported Tuesday.

The victim, Jean Hulme, was alone in her apartment in the 300 block of Amherst Drive when the fire broke out about 9:30 a.m. Monday, Capt. Steve Patterson said. The fire burned part of the bed but did not spread through the apartment, he said.

Patterson said Hulme had been using a respirator for several years because of breathing problems and a blood disorder.

The machine extracts oxygen from the air and purifies it, Patterson said. Tubes from the device may have been lying on the bed, saturating the mattress with oxygen before the fire erupted, he said.

Her husband, Jack, had left the apartment about 9 a.m. to go shopping with his grandchildren, Patterson said.