Woman Dies from Burns

UPDATE, 5 PM: The Essex County Prsecutor's Office has announced that a city woman who suffered serious burns early this morning has died. 

Sharon Horne, 44, who resided in the 200 block of Remmer Avenue, emerged from her home around 9:30 this morning engulfed in flames. After neighbors helped extinguish the fire, Horne was taken to University Medical Center and later to St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, where she was pronounced dead at 2:52 pm, the prosecutor's office said. 

The Arson Unit of the Essex County Prosecutor's Office and the Newark Fire Department are investigating the incident.

The fire started in the basement of the woman's home but did not cause significant structural damage, the prosecutor's office also said.

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A Renner Avenue woman was rushed to University Hospital this morning after sustaining burns to 100 percent of her body, a fire official said today.

Neighbors and other witnesses saw the woman run from the backyard of the home around 9:30 am, engulfed in flame. Scraps of charred clothing were still on the street in front of the home about an hour later. The home itself did not appear to have sustained much damage.

Johnnie Brown, a female neighbor of the victim, said she helped extinguish the flames.

“The lady came out of the backyard. We told her to drop and roll, but she couldn’t roll, so we put her out,” Brown said. “We used three coats trying to put her out.”

Brown, who knows the victim, said she shared her home with an aunt. Brown entered the home to make sure the aunt escaped safely and saw a small fire on the first floor.

“There was a wire sticking out of the wall” near the fire, Brown said.

The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating to determine whether the woman was set afire accidentally or if there was foul play involved, a spokesperson, Kathy Carter, said.

The woman is in “extremely serious condition,” Carter added. She declined to provide more information about the victim.