Terrible tragedy: Pensioner burns to death on electric wheelchair

Ely (Minnesota/USA) - A terrible tragedy has taken place in a nursing home in the USA. 80-year-old Marjorie Jane Hible was burned alive in her power wheelchair.

All help came too late for the pensioner.

According to what is known, Marjorie Jane Hible rolled across the grounds of the Boundary Waters Care Center in Ely, Minnesota, in her electric wheelchair last Monday.

The senior citizen was happily lighting up a cigarette. Then disaster struck. Suddenly, a huge fireball formed and engulfed the pensioner, inflicting horrific injuries.

When the alerted nursing staff arrived at the scene of the accident seconds later, the pensioner was still sitting on the burning wheelchair. "The victim was completely engulfed [by the flames] before the staff were able to free the person from the scooter," the police report states.

Meanwhile, other residents of the care home had to watch helplessly as the 80-year-old burned alive. After agonizingly long seconds, the nursing staff who had rushed to the scene managed to pull the burning woman from the death wheelchair.

A rescue helicopter took the nursing home resident to a nearby hospital. But by then it was already too late - there was nothing more the doctors could do for her. Marjorie Jane Hible succumbed to her serious injuries a short time later.

A carer was also injured while trying to extinguish the pensioner's fire. The person was also taken to hospital, but did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

Investigators have now begun their work into the cause of the fire. Preliminary findings indicate that the fire was started by a cigarette, reports local television station Northern News Now, citing the Minnesota State Fire Marshal's office.

The investigation is ongoing.