NORTH VERNON — North Vernon police and the Jennings County coroner are continuing to withhold the identity of a woman killed in a Friday night house fire.
While the victim’s next of kin have been notified, North Vernon Police Chief Keith Messer has asked that the victim’s identity be withheld until further investigative details are received from the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s office, according to a police spokeswoman. Repeated calls to Jennings County Coroner Alden Rudicel have not been returned.
North Vernon Fire Chief Mike Cole confirmed the residence that caught fire was a rented mobile home, located northeast of the Country Mark Corner Food Mart. While the address is listed as 528 W. Walnut St., maps show multiple separate homes off a private drive with that same address. The structure that caught fire was located about two blocks north of Walnut Street.
Cole, who described the victim as middle-aged, says it appears the fire started in the kitchen area. But the fire chief says any additional details will come through the North Vernon police.
When first-responders arrived at the fire shortly before midnight on Friday, they found the mobile home engulfed in flames, with the main entrance blocked by fire and heavy smoke, North Vernon Police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Richmond said.
Although two occupants had been able to escape the blaze on their own, officers spotted the female victim trying to exit a bedroom window where there was heavy smoke, Richmond said. While rescue attempts were made, the police spokesman said they were unable to bring the victim through the window to safety.
A short time later, officers lost sight of and contact with the female and she perished in the residence, Richmond said.
