A residential fire Thursday night displaced seven people and left an elderly woman with second- and third-degree burns on 90 percent of her body.
According to Gainesville Fire Rescue District Chief Richard Saulsberry, emergency units responded to a call at about 6 p.m. on Thursday about a fire at 3818 NE 12th St., where smoke was billowing out of the residence.
When units arrived, an elderly woman, whose name was not released, sat in a white lawn chair at the edge of the driveway, badly burned.
"There is a possibility she may pass," Saulsberry said, adding that all residents were accounted for.
Saulsberry said fire units at the scene contained the blaze to the living room and kitchen area. The inside of the house was destroyed, with black smoke marks on the outside walls, broken windows, chunks of plaster, and a lone, charred, slatted door on the floor.
The woman was the only one home at the time, Saulsberry said, and she was transported to Shands at UF.
Damages from the fire were estimated at $80,000.
The residents, five adults and two children, watched firefighters fight the blaze, and walked away in a huddle when they were told they would not be able to re-enter the house.
Later Thursday night, Saulsberry spoke with the elderly woman's daughter, who said the outlook for her mother wasn't good.
The incident is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal and Sandy Ellison of Gainesville Fire Rescue.
A firefighter walks out of a burned house at 3818 NE 12th St. Fire Rescue District Chief Richard Saulsberry said five adults and two children lived in the house, but only one elderly woman was home at the time of the incident.
