by KAREEM FAHIM and ANN FARMER
A 27-year-old woman died yesterday morning in a fire in Brooklyn that may have been caused by smoking in bed, the Fire Department and investigators said. Investigators at the scene, at 344 South Fifth Street in Williamsburg, said the fire appeared to be an accident, and added that the woman, who was not immediately identified, was found face down on her bed. Her relatives have not yet been notified of her death, the police said yesterday afternoon. Four firefighters were slightly hurt, the Fire Department said. A neighbor said the woman might have been part of a group that was socializing outside the building a few hours before the fire started. The neighbor, Joseph Lema, a taxi driver, said he returned home at 5 a.m. and saw four or five people drinking on the lawn in front of the woman's ground-floor apartment. Around 9:30 a.m., Mr. Lema, who lives next door, was awakened by the smell of smoke and the sound of firefighters banging on walls, he said. "It was really frightening," he said. "I jumped out of my bed." Investigators said that the owner of the building, who lives upstairs, went downstairs between 9 and 9:30 a.m. to water the lawn, and saw the smoke. He tried to douse the flames with a small fire extinguisher, but was beaten back by the fire. The woman had a roommate, investigators said, who was out of the house at the time of the fire.
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