WATERVILLE — A Waterville woman died in her bed during an apartment fire on New Year’s Day in the first fire fatality of 2011, officials at the Maine Department of Public Safety said.

Janet York, 55, was found dead when firefighters entered her apartment on Silver Place at 2:30 a.m. Saturday. The fire started in a garbage can in York’s living room, fire marshals said, most likely caused by improperly disposed smoking materials.

By the time firefighters arrived, smoke and fire had filled the apartment, which was heavily damaged, according to a Department of Public Safety press release. Other units in the four-apartment building suffered water and smoke damage.

The building’s smoke alarms were working properly, fire marshals said, and five residents of the building’s other apartments escaped unharmed. York’s roommate was at work during the fire.

The fatality occurred just after the close of a year of record lows for Maine fire deaths. Only nine people died in fires across the state in 2010, Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said. The previous low was 12 fire fatalities, in both 1995 and 2007.