Bel Marin Keys Woman Dies 8 Days After Burns From Kitchen Fire

A in a fire that started while she was cooking breakfast in her Novato home last month has died at a San Francisco hospital, a medical examiner's office employee said.

Sharon Pritchett, 82, cooking eggs for breakfast on her gas stove in Bel Marin Keys at about 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 11 when the sleeve of her terry cloth bathrobe caught fire.

Pritchett suffered second- and third-degree burns to 30 percent of her upper body and was taken to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Rafael, Marshal Bill Tyler said.

She was later transferred to Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, where she died Dec. 19, according to the San Francisco medical examiner's office said.

The fire produced enough smoke to activate the smoke alarm at the home, located in the first block of Dolphin Isle, Novato fire Capt. Dmitri Menzel said.

Pritchett's husband heard the alarm and the commotion in the kitchen, and tried to help his wife, Tyler said. He doused the flames with water in a bathtub, then called 911.

— Bay City News Service