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A house fire claimed the life of an elderly woman early Sunday east of Tomah.
Lucille Newcomb, 82, was trapped in her bedroom on the second floor of her hundred-year-old farmhouse, authorities said.
Firefighters were called out at 5:49 a.m. to 12312 Fortune Road in the town of Byron, about a mile northeast of the Interstate 90/94 interchange.
“By the time we got there there was fire coming out all the windows,” said Oakdale Fire Chief Gordon Fick. “There was nobody that could have survived it. We had firemen go up the inside steps, and (they) had to retreat.”
Monroe County Medical Examiner Toni Eddy-Ballman said there will be an autopsy today in Madison, but she believes the cause of death will be “the fire itself.”
“There’s no reason to suspect foul play,” she said.
Newcomb’s son, Tim, was able to escape from his second-floor bedroom and get out of the house, Fick said.
The fire was confined to the upstairs, and did not threaten a mobile home located six feet from the main house, Fick said.
Newcomb’s other son, Kenneth, and his wife, Tammy, live in the trailer, said Victoria Neitzel, who lives just down the road.
Fick said 28 firefighters were on the scene for about three hours making sure the blaze was out.
“Tough fight,” Fick said, noting the house had many roofs on it, along with blown-in insulation made from recycled paper. “They say it’s fire-retardant, but it is until it burns.”
Fick said the fire’s cause is still unknown. The state Fire Marshall’s office was called in to investigate, along with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department. Assisting were Tomah Ambulance and Oakdale First Responders.
Fick said he’s requested crisis counselors from Gundersen Lutheran to be at the Oakdale fire station Tuesday night to help firefighters deal with the loss.
“It’s tough. This is our second fatality this year,” Fick said.
On March 15, Sterling Eades, 19, died in his lower-level bedroom at 11369 Emerson Road in the town of La Grange.
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