HAYDEN, Colo. (AP) – An 88-year-old woman has died following a fire in her home in Hayden.

The Routt County Coroner says Carmen Northtrop died of smoke inhalation in Tuesday’s fire.

The blaze started when her husband, Billie Northtrop, was trying to thaw a frozen water heater pipe with a portable propane torch toward the back of their mobile home. The torch ignited the home’s insulation, causing the fire to spread quickly.

The husband and Wayne Eller, a rancher who had been passing by, went into the trailer but weren’t able to reach Northrop, who was in the front of the trailer.

A fire that started in the same way destroyed a mobile home in the town of Oak Creek on Dec. 22. No one was injured in that blaze.
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