Woman Dies Months After Clothing Fire
JUSTICE, Ill. (STMW) -- A Justice woman whose clothing caught fire in January at her southwest suburban home died early Sunday.
Emergency personnel were dispatched at 12:43 p.m. Jan. 23 to the 8800 block of W. 77th St. in Justice for a reported burn victim and found the 53-year-old woman sitting on a basement couch in a robe, according to a Justice police release.
The woman -- identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office as Sophia Karwaczka -- told paramedics from the Roberts Park Fire Department that she accidentally caught herself on fire the previous night while smoking in her garage while wearing what she called polyester clothes, the release said.
She suffered second-degree burns on about 85 percent of her body, mostly from the left side from head to toe, the release said.
Karwaczka was pronounced dead at 12:06 a.m. April 17 at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, the medical examiner's office said. An autopsy determined she died of sepsis and thermal burns from a clothing fire.
