A woman involved in a house fire has died after firefighters were unable to access her home.

According to 13 WHAM, during the first few days of June, Rochester firefighters responded to a call on Ludington Street and tried to get into Margaret Divincenzo’s home through the front door.

But inside the home, piles of hoarded clutter and debris had blocked the firefighters’ path, ultimately delaying the woman’s rescue. Firefighters were forced to enter the home through a back bedroom, which took a lot more time, and then pulled Divincenzo out of the fire.

Divincenzo died at the hospital a few days later.

“The door isn’t open very much,” said Lance Reuter, Margaret’s neighbor. “If you do catch a glimpse in it the house is pretty packed, and her car the same way.”

Hoarding is a term used to describe those who collect and save thousands of items, never recycling, donating, or throwing them away. After time, a large house can fill up from floor to ceiling with random items and, in Divincenzo’s case, become a serious fire hazard.

“It’s very common in the City of Rochester to encounter these homes,” said Chief James Hartman of the Rochester Fire Department. “Waist-deep clutter throughout a home is not uncommon.”

Hartman said that these hoarding encounters happen more often than most people think. Significant hoarding like this can cause problems for the homeowner, along with first responders and neighbors. It’s one of the many reasons that maintaining a clean and organized home is so important.

“These fires are much more difficult to extinguish and confine to one structure,” Hartman said.

Like old, worn-out siding, which can result in up to a 10% loss of a home’s original value, hoarding, along with being a physical danger, can lower the worth of a home as well.

“You try to come in and not focus on the clutter or the debris or how they’re living,” Hartman said, “but focus on the person and if they are willing to seek help.”

Neighborhood Service Centers and Family and Crisis Intervention Teams can help those struggling with hoarding issues.