A 41 year-old East Baltimore woman was found dead yesterday after a fire heavily damaged her rowhouse apartment, officials said.
Firefighters found the victim, Cynthia Hines, in her third-floor bedroom in the 1800 block of E. Baltimore St., said fire spokesman Michael M. Maybin.
The fire, reported about 4 a.m., apparently started in a second-floor kitchen and caused about $55,000 in damage, Maybin said. It took firefighters about 25 minutes to bring the blaze under control.
No one else was hurt, and the cause remained under investigation, Maybin said.
Hines was the 21st person to die in a fire this year in Baltimore.
The city recorded 17 fire deaths through last month, and officials were hoping to stay below the 19 deaths tallied in 1999 - the fewest since the department started keeping records in 1938.
But four people have died in fires this month, including a 3-year-old boy in Southeast Baltimore and an 82-year-old woman and her son in Locust Point.
Last year, 22 people died in fires in the city.
