UPDATE: Woman Who Died In Apartment Fire Is Identified

Friends and neighbors identified the woman who died in an apartment fire as 74-year-old Marcia Bartels.

They said she was bed-ridden and lived in the same corner apartment at Puerta Del Sol for the past nine years.

“Wonderful lady, I liked her very much,” said Lena Freeman, a neighbor and friend.

Freeman said she used to walk over to Bartels’ apartment, now barricaded with yellow tape, to lend a helping hand.

“She was very ill. Very, very ill,” Freeman said. “She smoked a lot, all the time, all the time.”

Investigators ruled the fire as “accidental in nature,” but will not confirm whether it sparked by a cigarette, as some neighbors suspect.

“That’s sad and really kinda makes me angry. But it’s also surprising because I didn’t think she did (smoke). I knew she was this little old lady in a wheelchair and people would come and help. l walk around the apartments but I didn’t think she smoked because she used oxygen,” said Tom Taylor, another neighbor.

Heat and smoke damage could be seen through melted blinds hanging in windows.

Oxygen tanks surrounded Bartels’ bed, where officials said the elderly woman was found, but that fire never touched the flammable containers.

“When the first crews arrived, they found a small fire in one room, so they were able to pretty much extinguish it within a few minutes,” said Nathan Beyer, a firefighter with the Las Cruces Fire Department.

But those few minutes were too late for Bartels, whom friends said was bed-ridden.

“I saw they were working on something, I thought it was a piece of firefighting equipment … it was her,” Taylor said. “She was laid out here on the sidewalk on a piece of asphalt.”

Freeman said that whether or not it was Bartels’ smoking, dying in a fire is a horrific way to go.

“It truly is and I’m gonna miss her,” Freeman said. “She was a very nice friend of mine, I liked her very much.”

Friends said nurses came by Bartels’ home every day and she also received oxygen daily.

Fire officials said they believe Bartels had a working smoke detector inside her apartment, but said that having a phone within arm’s reach, especially for individuals who are disabled, is sometimes the best lifeline.