UPDATE: 80-Year-Old Woman Dies in Gray House Fire, Ruled Accidental

GRAY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — An 80-year-old Gray woman is dead after a fire destroyed her home on East Clinton Street.

According to Jones County Deputy Coroner Wade Powers, 80-year-old Sara Clements was pronounced dead on the scene after firefighters pulled her out of the burning home. The cause of death was exposure to fire.

Jones County Assistant Fire Chief Bill Wright was treated and released for heat exhaustion. Powers says Clements’ daughter was also taken to the hospital. She was treated and released for minor injuries.

State fire investigators say the fire began in the kitchen, and resulted as an accidental cooking fire.

“It’s a sad day,” said Shipley.

Gray Fire Chief Max Wood says it’s been years since he responded to a blaze in the city and lost a life in the process.

“This is a member of our community. This is always difficult you know, this is somebody’s family and Gray is a small town, and it has more of a family feel than a lot of your larger cities. She’ll be missed,” said Wood.

On Thursday morning, a fire tore through a home on East Clinton Street. Clements was trapped inside. Chief Wood says the first firefighters arrived on the scene around 9:40 am.

“A daughter tried to reach her mother at no avail, came over, saw the house on fire, and called 911,” said Wood.

Jones County firefighters Travis Touhy was one of the two men who pulled Clements out.

“As soon as I got inside I had to feel for everything. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The only thing I could see was the orange glow from the fire in the other room, and I knew i had to get her out before it reached that room,” said Touhy.

Brock Wise helped Touhy get Clements out of the house.

“[I’m] very sorry for the family’s loss and prayers be with them,” said Wise.

Shipley praised the volunteer firefighters from both Gray and Jones county who came out to battle the blaze.

“They went above and beyond they did everything they could to get her out of the house before it was too late,” said Shipley.