Woman dies in Indianapolis apartment fire

Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of a fire that killed an elderly woman near downtown Indianapolis Sunday morning.

Flames broke out in an apartment home in the 800 block of Indiana Avenue.

The chair where Willa Mae Fossett would sit in the lobby of the Indiana Avenue apartments is empty. Behind a closed door at about 4:30 am fire broke out in her apartment.


"We have what we call in this building as resident patrol. We had a young man who was manning -- I should say a senior resident -- who was manning the front desk at the time who did call the first responders here," said Bud Meyers of the Indianapolis Housing Agency.

"Something caught fire in her bed. She gathered that stuff up that was on fire, she put it in her basket that was on her walker and then was trying to walk it to the bathroom at that point we think she was overcome by the smoke and died," explained Capt. Rita Reith of the Indianapolis Fire Department.

It wasn't until firefighters put out the flames and cleared the apartment of smoke that they discovered the grandmother on the floor.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. But the housing director says he's attempting to convince his board to ban smoking in all public housing units.