65-year-old woman dies after Irving Park apartment fire

A 65-year-old woman died one day after a house fire Friday morning in the Irving Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

Gabrielle Donovan was injured in the fire about 4 a.m. in her apartment in the 3500 block of North Milwaukee, according to Fire Media Affairs and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Firefighters entered the apartment and found her in the living room near the hallway, and pulled her from the building, Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford said. She was unconscious and only faintly breathing.

She was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where she was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, the medical examiner’s office said.

Langford said she suffered second- and third-degree burns over most of her body.

A Monday autopsy showed she died from smoke inhalation and burns, and ruled her death an accident.

The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined, Langford said.