OLYMPIA — Three Olympia area residents who died in fires this month have been identified, the Thurston County Coroner’s Office announced.
Leland and Karen Dudley, both 78, died overnight Nov. 5 in the 3100 block of Glen Ayre Lane Northwest in Olympia. They died as a result of smoke inhalation and burns, Coroner Gary Warnock said. The manner of death was classified as an accident, he said.
Elaine Waterman died in an overnight fire on Nov. 8 in the 3300 block of 163rd Avenue Southwest near Tenino. She, too, died as a result of smoke inhalation and burns, Warnock said. The manner of death also was classified as an accident.
All three took longer to identify because they had to be identified by dental records, Warnock said.
On Nov. 5, McLane Black Lake Fire Department crews were dispatched at 2:15 a.m. to reports of a structure fire discovered by a neighbor after hearing what they believed to be the sound of breaking glass, The Olympian reported. By the time crews arrived, the house was fully engulfed in flames and heavy smoke. It was determined the home was occupied at the time of the fire, and the Dudleys were later found dead during search efforts.
A preliminary cause of the fire was an electrical issue in the kitchen, according to the fire department.
On Nov. 8, a neighbor woke up about 4:30 a.m. to see the woman’s home engulfed in flames, South Thurston Fire Chief Andrew Schaffran told The Olympian. He said fire crews knocked down the blaze by about 5:30 a.m. No one else occupied the home and no other structures were damaged, he said.
Schaffran called the woman’s home, a small one-story structure, a “total loss,” with fire shooting out of all the windows and doorways. By the time fire crews arrived, he said the roof had collapsed, The Olympian reported.
