Fire officials say, she was smoking in bed and the home did not have working smoke detectors.
"Folks just need to pay attention, be safe don't smoke in bed and make sure that you have smoke alarms so you can stay alive," Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said.
Ayers says careless smoking was the leading cause of house fires in the city last year.
38 people lost their lives in 2008 in house fires in Philadelphia.
10 of those were caused by smoking.
And, although the total number of fatalities is down, Ayers says some of those deaths could have been prevented.
"The trend that we see is the folks that have died in fires don't have smoke alarms," Ayers said.
A working smoke alarm is vital to alerting you to a fire.
It could be the difference between getting out safely, and not getting out at all.
Ayers says every homeowner should check their smoke detector once a month and change the batteries twice a year.
"We want folks to change their batteries when we change our clocks," Ayers said.
Ayers also suggests having a smoke detector on every level or even in every room of your home excluding the kitchen and bathroom.
As Philadelphia rang in the New Year, a new law also took effect.
The law requires carbon monoxide alarms in all one-and two-family homes, and residential and assisted living facilities with fewer than 16 residents.
'We have seen an uptick in carbon monoxide poisonings people going to the hospital," Ayers said.
The Philadelphia Fire Department has also teamed up with area grocery and home improvement stores to help cut the cost of carbon monoxide detectors.
Right now, some of those stores are offering 10-percent off the price.