A fire Monday night on Hightower Road took the life of an elderly woman, said Statesboro Fire Investigator Capt. Emerson Melton.
    An overloaded extension cord caused the blaze that destroyed the older, wood-frame house where 78-year-old Cordia Ellison Herrington lived with five other family members, he said.
    Herrington was alone in the home when the fire broke out around 9:40 p.m. Monday, Melton said.
    One of her grandsons, who lived close by in a mobile home, discovered the fire and went inside the house, bringing his grandmother outside. Bulloch County EMS responded to the scene and transported Herrington to East Georgia Regional Medical Center, where  she was pronounced dead, said Bulloch County Coroner Jake Futch.
    Futch said Herrington died of smoke inhalation.
    Melton said the house fire on Hightower Road, near Meadow Lakes subdivision, is the 21st fire the Statesboro Fire Department officials have investigated this year. Herrington's death is the first fire related fatality this year, and there are three fire victims still being treated at the Joseph M. Stills Burn Center in Augusta, he said. Those victims were injured in a West Main Street, Statesboro house fire in February.