Woman, 58, perishes after blaze

July 5, 2005

KATE GOLDEN\Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA -- A woman died after firefighters dragged her out of a burning house Sunday night, according to the Central Mat-Su Fire Department and Alaska State Troopers.

Fifty-eight-year-old Bonnie L. Weys woke up trapped by smoke in her bedroom on the second story of her split-level Cottonwood Shores home at 2395 North Willow Drive. She called 911.

Her son, 24-year-old Timothy Weys, was sleeping in the living room downstairs, he told troopers. He told them he tried to get her out, but couldn't get to her through the smoke. At one point he threw a log through the back window from outside. He ran to the house of a neighbor, who called 911.

When Central Mat-Su Fire Chief Jack Krill Jr. arrived less than four minutes after the 11:22 p.m. call, dispatchers were still on the phone with Weys, who was inside. Gray smoke poured out of the eaves. There was already intense fire on the first floor of the split-level house.

"There's still someone in there," a shirtless neighbor just outside the house called out.

Inside, the phone line was still connected. Firefighters said they knew they had a chance to save her.

"I have not heard coughing in approximately one minute," the dispatcher said on the radio.

When Krill and the crew opened the door, black smoke billowed. They got as far as 8 feet.

"Our ears started tingling," Krill said.

It was too dangerous to stay. Another crew, led by Capt. John Darnell, tried again after the engines brought water lines in; no luck.

They broke windows to let the heat out. More than 30 firefighters responded, Krill said.

Finally, firefighters Darnell, John Beebe and Josh Standiford got in, found their way to the back bedroom upstairs and dragged the more-than-200-pound, unresponsive woman out of the house.

Medics immediately descended upon her.

She had a faint pulse, but not other signs of life. The LifeGuard helicopter was on its way.

"By the time it got there … they had done everything that they could to try to revive her," Krill said Monday.

At 12:30, a half-hour after she emerged from the house, they called code, pronouncing her dead.

Crime-scene tape closed off the driveway the next day.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation Monday afternoon by troopers and the deputy state fire marshal.

Trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson said that while there doesn't appear to be anything suspicious about the fire, protocol demands a thorough investigation.

Weys's body is scheduled for a state autopsy in Anchorage on Tuesday.

Krill said that what appeared to be a smoke detector in the hallway outside the bedroom was a glob of melted plastic by the time firefighters arrived.

It may not have functioned. Dispatchers reported that they couldn't hear a smoke alarm in the background, he said.

The house remained standing. None of the surroundings were damaged, and no one else was injured.

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