Woman, multiple cats dead after West Valley house fire

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — An 80-year-old woman died following a fire that broke out in a West Valley City home early Friday morning.

Battalion Chief Bob Fitzgerald with the West Valley City Fire Department said crews responded to the home, located near 3400 S. 3690 West, at approximately 1 a.m.

The first set of firefighters that arrived began putting out the fire while a second group searched the home and found the woman.

A woman taken to the hospital after an early morning house fire in West Valley

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Fitzgerald said she was beyond any medical attention they could give her and originally said she was rushed to an area hospital. Firefighters later said she died at the scene.

“This fire went out fairly quickly,” Fitzgerald said. “There wasn’t a lot of volume to the fire, just an awful lot of smoke in the home and just grateful none of the firefighters were hurt and that our hearts go out to the victim.”

Crews were able to extinguish the fire in less than 10 minutes but said they noted low-lying smoke throughout the neighborhood when they arrived.

“The house is not a total loss,” Fitzgerald said. “Like I said that wasn’t large volumes of fire just a lot of smoke and in most fires, that’s what takes people’s life is the smoke.”

Crews were also concerned about water freezing on nearby streets and sidewalks due to cold temperatures. Investigators believe the fire was started by electrical problems and estimated the damage at $75,000.