by DAN BELL AND LINDSAY FABER
A Flushing woman was killed Sunday when an electrical cord under her bedroom carpet caught fire and filled her house with smoke, police and fire officials said yesterday.
Theresa Van Laar, 62, was in the living room of her first-floor apartment at 150-39 19th Ave. at 10:25 p.m. Sunday when the fire broke out in her bedroom, fire officials said. She was found behind the living room sofa after firefighters broke through her windows. She was unable to be revived at the scene.
Next-door neighbor Anthony Glavan, 46, a postal worker whose two-story home shares a wall with Van Laar's house, said he smelled smoke and opened the window to see it seeping out Van Laar's windows.
"I thought she wasn't home, because all the lights were off and all the windows were closed," he said. "I thought she'd gone out and left something on."
Glavan said he saw EMS workers take Van Laar out and try to revive her.
"I'm surprised she didn't make it to the door; the door was just a few feet away," he said.
Neighbors said Van Laar was the mother of two grown sons and lived in the house alone.
The second story of her brick building was a separate apartment that recently had been vacated by another family.
Dragica Glavan, 70, another neighbor, said Van Laar recently spoke of her fears of living alone.
Van Laar worked for the Prudential insurance company for several years before retiring two years ago, said a former colleague who gave her name only as Elaine.
Elaine said Van Laar would frequently bring buns and rolls to work for her colleagues, and would often volunteer to give friends rides or lend them things.
"She was a sweetheart," Elaine said. "A woman full of life. We had more laughs than you could imagine."
The fire was under control by 11 p.m. About 60 firefighters fought the blaze, fire officials said. Van Laar was taken to Flushing Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 11:17 p.m. Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
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