101-Year-Old Woman Dies in House Fire

MAYWOOD, IL — A 101-year-old woman perished in a house fire late Friday in Maywood as flames consumed two bedrooms and the kitchen of the home.

The woman was identified as Hattie Harper. A Saturday autopsy by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office ruled her cause of death as accidental. A 73-year-old man suffered burns and smoke inhalation and was taken to Loyola University Medical Center.

The fire in a bungalow-style residence in the 2000 block of South Ninth Avenue broke out at about 10 p.m.

Maywood Police Chief Valdimir Talley believes the elderly man was trying to save his mother. A man by the name of Charles Harper, age 73, resides at that address.

The cause of the fire is not yet known.