AMORY, Miss. (WTVA) -- Authorities say an Amory woman was killed in a house fire Sunday afternoon.
Monroe County Coroner Alan Gurley said Martha Guyton, 74, of 508 Third Street North died as she apparently tried to escape.
When Amory firefighters arrived at the scene, the house was already fully involved.
"Reports from bystanders here were that there was still a person inside," said fireman Tony Garza of the Amory Fire Department. "We made an interior attack, knocked the fire down and started our search patterns. We did find the victim still inside the home in a bedroom. We believe that maybe she was attempting to make her way out of the house and just became disoriented."
Guyton apparently lived alone, says one neighbor, with a couple of pets.
Gurley says the cause of death was smoke inhalation.
"As soon as the firefighters arrived they found the remains of Ms. Guyton," Gurley said. "She was the resident of the house. They rermoved her body to the awaiting ambulance outside, and she was pronounced dead in the ambulance."
Authorities said they still haven't determined what caused the fire but one next door neighbor says she heard an explosion.
"I heard like an explosion and then a passerby came and knocked on the door and told me to come out," Nadra Grimes said. "When I came out the front of the house was just all on fire."
Grimes said she and her family quckly moved away from the burning house.
Meanwhile, an investigator with the State Fire Marshal's Office was on the scene Sunday.
No word on how long it could be before a cause of the fire is known.
Gurley said he will await the results of the State Fire Marshal's investigation before deciding to conduct an autopsy.
A member of the Amory Fire Department says that the Hatley Fire Department assisted in the call.
