Elderly woman dies in house fire in southeast Houston

  by Pooja Lodhia

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Fire investigators are still searching for the cause of a blaze that killed an elderly woman in southeast Houston.

The fire broke out overnight at the home on Foster and Cosby. The victim lived there with her son.

"This was her room right here," said Wilson Barker, the victim's son.

Going through his mother's clothes, refrigerator and papers, Barker comes across a photo signed 'I love you,' which is now covered in ash.

"She was a good lady. A good lady. I'm going to miss her, you know," Barker said.

He says he wasn't here when their home caught on fire at around 10pm Thursday. Firefighters say his 80-year-old mother, Elizabeth, was sleeping at the time. Firefighters tried to get her out, but had some trouble getting in because of the burglar bars around the home.

"We already had medic units on stand-by. Those units initiated advanced life support protocol and transported to a nearby hospital," said Captain Ruy Lozano with the Houston Fire Department.

Neighbors tried frantically to save the victim after they saw flames tearing through her home and called 911.

"Nobody was here. When we came, he tried knocking on the door. We tried busting it. We tried opening the window and they couldn't open it,'" said neighbor Lydia Martinez. "So when they tried opening the window, the flames started getting higher and I was like, 'Move!'"

Elizabeth later died from burns and smoke inhalation.

"She had my food on the stove when I came home last night," Barker said.

Now Barker is left with memories and questions from investigators.

"They asked me if I had any enemies," he said.

Barker told us he has one enemy who lives nearby. When we asked him if the fire could be arson, Barker responded, "He probably did it because we had some altercations, him and I."

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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