Two deputies from the Lycoming County Coroner's Office arrive at the scene of Wednesday's fatal house fire near Lairdsville. The cause of the fire remained under investigation . PHILIP HOLMES/Sun-Gazette

LAIRDSVILLE – An elderly wheelchair-bound woman perished Wednesday afternoon in a fire that extensively damaged her home on Salem Schoolhouse Road, just off Route 118, state police at the scene confirmed.

“Someone went in the house and brought her out in a wheelchair. We don’t know at this point if it was a family member, a passerby or neighbor,” Cpl. Brandon Schrawder, a state police spokesman, told a reporter the scene. “She was in cardiac arrest. They did CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on her, but they were unable to revive her,” he said.

Investigators said the victim, whose name was expected to be released Thursday, lived in the one-story house with her husband, but she was the only one home when the fire broke out about 3:10 p.m.

“It’s my understanding that one end of the house, a bedroom, was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived here,” Schrawder said. While racing to the scene, about three miles east of here, one firefighter radioed to a dispatcher that “heavy black smoke” was visible a half a mile away.”

Firefighters from both Columbia and Lycoming counties were dispatched to the blaze, which took about an hour to bring under control. Firefighters from Lairdsville, Unityville, Millville, Benton, Orangeville, Hughesville and Picture Rocks responded.

After extinguishing a house fire in which an elderly Unityville area woman perished, volunteer firefighters return to their fire trucks late Wednesday afternoon. PHILIP HOLMES/Sun-Gazette

Schrawder said a state police marshal was at the scene Wednesday night, trying to determine the origin and cause of the fire. The victim, who was in her 70s, was pronounced dead at the scene. Two deputy coroners took her body to the Forensic Center at UPMC Williamsport. More information about the cause of her death was expected to be released Thursday.