Villa Park fire victim identified
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Authorities have identified the woman killed Sunday in a Villa Park apartment fire as Kathleen Hoffman, 58.
The DuPage County coroner's office said Wednesday morning Hoffman's cause of death is pending investigation and completion of test results after the Sunday morning fire that killed her and her dog.
Hoffman was found unresponsive in the home she shared with her husband — a first-floor apartment in the 300 block of North Princeton Avenue — by firefighters arriving three minutes after an 11:16 a.m. call about the fire.
Villa Park Fire Chief Ron Rakosnik said it looked as though flames started in the unit's kitchen. The Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office assisted to test for any accelerants that would indicate foul-play and found none. Rakosnik said the fire does not appear to be suspicious, and the investigation into its cause should wrap up in the next week.
Smoke damage temporarily displaced the three other families living in the four-unit building. There was also some heat damage to the stairwell, Rakosnik said. Hoffman's husband was at church at the time of the fire and no other residents or firefighters were injured.
Major fire damage was confined to Hoffman's unit. The fire department estimated $150,000 in damage to the structure and $50,000 to its contents.
