One woman died when her home caught fire in Big Lake this week, the Alaska State Troopers reported.
The Houston Fire Department was called to a residential fire in Big Lake around 8:50 a.m. Monday, according to an online trooper dispatch report. Dena Cooper, 76, was found inside the home and later died.
Troopers wrote in the dispatch that a relative of Cooper’s who lived on the same property in a camper reported that she had come to his camper and told him “there was an explosion in her house.” According to the dispatch report, Cooper told the relative she was going to take shelter in a neighbor’s home.
First responders found a fire in one of the rear bedrooms of the home, troopers wrote. Troopers searched the neighborhood for Cooper but didn’t find her, and firefighters later found a woman inside the home.