Fire strikes residence of wheelchair-bound woman

A motorized wheelchair sits in one of the smoke-damaged rooms. [Click to enlarge]

A woman restricted to movement in a wheelchair was able to escape a house fire on North Grayson Street in Newbern on Monday night.

According to Dyer County Sheriff's Department report -- which received the call because Newbern's 911 system was down at the time -- Willie Brown called at about 7:52 p.m. that her house was on fire, but she was getting out.

The Newbern Fire Department was alerted and arrived on the scene almost immediately to extinguish the blaze.

The fire is believed to have been started in the area of the living room around a kerosene heater Brown was using to warm the house.

The 1,080-square-foot house sustained smoke damage from the fire in several rooms that were not burned.

The blaze is the eighth house fire in Dyer County in the last two weeks.