Investigation into cause of fatal fire continues

Friends remember Bonnie Weys as someone who loved life

July 8, 2005

KATE GOLDEN/Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA -- The cause of a house fire that resulted in a woman's death Sunday night will be under investigation until next week, according to a state fire marshal's office official.

Bonnie L. Weys, 58, died outside her Cottonwood Shores house at 2395 North Willow Drive.

Investigator Dan Jones returned to the house Thursday to fill in some procedural gaps in the investigation, his supervisor said.

Alaska State Trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson clarified Monday that protocol demands a thorough investigation. He added then that the fire did not appear to be suspicious.

As of Thursday afternoon, there was no definite answer about how the fire started.

Firefighters found what looked like melted smoke detectors in the house, but were unsure if they worked, according to Central Mat-Su Fire Chief Jack Krill Jr. Dispatchers told him they did not hear an alarm in the background while talking on the phone with Weys.

It is also unknown why Weys could not escape.

Her son, Timothy Weys, was sleeping downstairs in the split-level home and awoke to the fire. He yelled and tried to get up to his mother, in the back upstairs bedroom, but couldn't get through.

At one point he ran around the back and threw a log through the window. Meanwhile, Bonnie Weys had called 911. Her son ran to the house of a neighbor, who also called 911.

Firefighters arrived a few minutes after Weys' call. Krill said they only managed to infiltrate the thick, hot smoke on the third try. Once they emerged with Weys, medics attempted to resuscitate her. By the time a LifeGuard helicopter arrived, however, a half-hour later, she was pronounced dead.

Neighbor and friend Sharon Seagondollar saw the fire trucks and ambulances streak down Willow Drive Sunday night and prayed for whomever was involved, she said. She was devastated when she learned their purpose the next day.

"To find out the next day that it was my friend …" she said. "It's been difficult for all of her friends."

Memorial services for Bonnie Weys will be held at the Sacred Heart Parish on Tuesday at 11 a.m.

'She was radiant'

Close friends remembered Weys as an active, lively, loving woman. Of her seven children, all of whom live in the Valley, one daughter had just delivered a baby and another is getting married soon.

Sharon Seagondollar knew Weys through church and lived down the street from her.

She said Weys was the kind of woman who liked to share and give little gifts -- or the shirt off her back. She said Weys was a woman who arrived at church one day and said, "Guess what! I'm a grandmother again!" A person who always said "Hi, guys!" whenever she walked into a room, and "Love you!" on her way out. Someone who inevitably had a smile on her face, who knew everybody.

"She was excited about life," Seagondollar said.

Roses blossom now in a garden in front of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, where Weys attended religious services and participated in parish activities. She was planting the garden to honor the Virgin Mary, Seagondollar said. A friend for more than two decades, Natalia Westfall, planted petunias there Tuesday.

"I am finishing her thunder," Westfall said.

"She wanted to plant roses and lilac trees, mango shrubs. We did some ferns, we got daisies, we got bluebells, you name it. We got little pansies. We got a nice little garden that she did not get to get finished. I look up to the sky and said, 'I will finish for you.' "

Westfall, who said she spent countless hours with Weys, last saw her Saturday for coffee.

Weys was her typical bonny self, she said. They told each other they loved each other, as usual. Weys gushed over Westfall's perfect pot of coffee. Westfall served rhubarb pie; Westfall said it was OK to eat dessert first. Weys joked that she couldn't believe Westfall's husband made the pie. Westfall complimented her on her hot-pink shirt.

"She was radiant," Westfall said.

Weys called her later that night.

"Nat," she told her friend. "I got another hot-pink blouse. We get together, we'll be just like hot-pink twins," Westfall remembered.

"Our loss, but God's gain," she said Thursday. "Man, does He have somebody!"

Contact Kate Golden at 352-2284 or kate.golden@frontiersman.com.