An 88-year-old woman was seriously burned in a fire yesterday at an apartment complex for the elderly in Overlea, Baltimore County fire officials said. The fire is the second in four days in the county involving senior citizen housing.

Fire Department Division Chief D.J. Murphy said the woman, who was not identified, received second- and third-degree burns. She was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Lt. Richard Muth, a Fire Department spokesman, said the one-alarm fire was caused by careless smoking. It was confined to the woman's apartment. No other injuries were reported.

The apartment complex, Park View at Taylor in the 4100 block of Taylor Ave., is home to elderly residents living independently. Murphy said that the woman was using an oxygen tank.

Early Friday, a one-alarm fire at the Bonnie Blink Masonic Home of Maryland in the 300 block of International Circle in Cockeysville sent eight residents and employees to the hospital. Five residents and employees were taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore for possible smoke inhalation and three others were treated at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. All were released.

Fire officials said that fire started when combustibles ignited near a light fixture.

The blaze was confined to the nursing-home section of the 235-bed campus. The sprinkler system in the two-story facility had doused the fire by the time firefighters arrived, officials said.