AUGUSTA — An Augusta woman badly burned in a cooking fire last month has died.

Lorraine White, 81, died May 30 at Maine Medical Center in Portland, where she was being treated for severe burns, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland.

White was burned May 7 when her clothes caught fire while she was cooking in an electric oven inside her home at the Inn at City Hall.

Deputy Chief David Groder of the Augusta Fire Department said the fire started when White opened the oven door to remove an item. She was taken by LifeFlight to Maine Medical Center.

The fire caused little to no damage to the building, Groder said. No evacuation was necessary.

White was raised in Massachusetts and in 1951 enlisted in the Air Force to serve as a nurse, according to her obituary. She left the service with the birth of the first of five children she had with her first husband, Everett Eaton of Texas. The military family moved around the country. White worked as a telephone operator in advertising and sales.

White, who has children and siblings who live in the area, attended Thomas College in Waterville.

The incident prompted a warning from Groder on the dangers of cooking fires, which are the No. 1 cause of home fires and injury across the country each year.

The leading cause of fires in the kitchen is unattended cooking, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Most cooking fires in the home involve stove-top cooking.

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