WILLIAMSBURG - A woman died Sunday in a fire at her house near the Stuckey community, Williamsburg County Deputy Coroner William B. Horton III said.

The coroner’s office has sent the body of 62-year-old Julia M. Smalls of Hemingway for an autopsy in Charleston at the Medical University of South Carolina, Horton said.

Dispatchers at 4:30 p.m. received a 911 call about the fire at 304 Airport Drive. Williamsburg County Fire Department personnel responded to the scene.

Fire officials are uncertain what caused the fire. Williamsburg County Sheriff Kelvin Washington said investigators are working to determine how the fire started.

“It was so burned up (that) it’s probably going to end up being undetermined,” Williamsburg County Fire Department Assistant Chief Leo Carmichael said.

Smalls, who was in a wheelchair, was unable to escape the burning home, Carmichael said.

The fire destroyed her home and melted the vinyl siding of a house next door, Carmichael said. Although the adjacent house was occupied, no one there was injured by the fire.

Charles Tomlinson of The Florence Morning News (SCNow.com)