Invalid Killed, Wife Injured in Fire
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An invalid was killed and his wife critically injured in a Torrance house fire Sunday morning that was touched off by a cigarette, authorities said.
Wellman Biehler, 65, a victim of Lou Gehrig’s disease, was unable to get out of his back bedroom as the flames spread from his wife’s bedroom shortly before 5 a.m., Fire Battalion Chief Jack McCarter said. Firefighters found Billee Biehler, 61, unconscious in another bedroom, the telephone in her hand, McCarter said.
“We believe she was smoking in bed in the front bedroom,” McCarter said. “When the fire started, she went to an adjoining room and probably tried to call us.”
Mrs. Biehler was in critical condition in Little Company of Mary Hospital with severe burns and smoke inhalation.
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