A trailer fire that killed a 43-year-old woman north of Riverton on Friday is still being investigated, according to authorities.
No one else was killed or injured in the fire, Riverton Volunteer Fire Department (RVFD) Chief Jesse Cassity told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
The state fire marshal’s office is looking into the fire’s origin and cause, Cassity said.
Five RVFD units and 16 firefighters responded shortly after 8 p.m. on Friday to a fire at 64 Snowberry Lane, where a trailer home was “fully engulfed,” according to Cassity.
“We were able to hold it at one alarm and get it extinguished and overhauled,” Cassity told me.
He reported that a neighbor’s porch was singed while the fire was burning, resulting in “very moderate, very light damage.”
Cassity and Fremont County Undersheriff Mike Hutchison both declined to identify the woman found dead on Monday, referring the case to the Fremont County Coroner’s Office.
Fremont County Coroner Chief Deputy Tony Simmers said his office informed next-of-kin of the fatality, but he declined to reveal the decedent’s identity because the case is still being investigated.
The Fremont County Coroner’s Office operates in a manner that differs from the norm across the state. Other coroners typically release a decedent’s name after notifying next of kin.
A GoFundMe page created by a local woman named Rosalia Warren claims the woman who died is a family member.
The Way The Hudson Fire Haunts Us
Hutchison emphasized the importance of allowing the coroner to conduct an investigation into fire fatalities.
“Obviously, in a fire death you have to wait for the coroner to do a very thorough examination to make sure there aren’t wounds or trauma (incurred) prior to the death — and if the death was caused by the fire,” he told CNN.
Hutchison did not specifically mention the case, but the high-profile 2011 double homicide in Hudson, where the killers nearly mistook two stabbings for arson, is well remembered in Fremont County.
But, so far, Hutchison said, he has no evidence of suspicious activity in Friday’s fire, though it is too early to make a definitive statement.
