GLOUCESTER, Mass. (WHDH) -- A fatal fire claimed the life of a woman in Gloucester Saturday night.

According to neighbors, a woman in her 50's lived alone in the home on Windsor Lane.

Some neighbors said over the last few years, they would stop by and take care of her.

“She had friends and they'd make sure she was alright, she was very independent, it's very, very sad,” said a neighbor.

Around 11 p.m. Saturday, her home caught fire.

“We were worried it was going to do some damage, but I noticed the house next door looks like it got a little bit of damage from it too,” said a neighbor, Melissa.

We're not even through January, and this is already the seventh fire death this year in Massachusetts.

Fire officials believe this underscores the importance of having working smoke detectors.

“By removing line of defense, you lose time, like when firefighters got there last night, there was smoke coming of both windows,” said Deputy Fire Chief Miles Schlichte, Gloucester Fire Department.

Fire investigators are still trying to determine if there were working smoke detectors in the home, but say many of the fires they've responded to recently, that has been a major issue.

“We seem to have a resurgence of people being somewhat lackadaisical on the detectors themselves. The batteries aren’t in, they're not where they should be, it's becoming an area of big concern, with us, and across the state as I understand,” said Deputy Chief Miles Schlicte, Gloucester Fire Dept.

In Gloucester alone, there have been half a dozen fires in the last week and a half. In many cases, the fires started as people were trying to heat their homes.

The cause of this fatal fire in still under investigation though many are wondering if it could have been prevented.