Crime & Safety
OCME: Fatal Fire Victim Died From ‘Cardiac Arrythmia’
The incident remains under investigation, according to police.
By Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent
NEW HAVEN, CT — The 71-year-old woman who died at the scene of a Fountain Street apartment fire on Monday died from a host of medical conditions exacerbated by fleeing the building.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) provided the Independent with that update on Wednesday — two days after a fire broke out in a fifth-floor apartment at the six-story residential building at 200 Fountain St.
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An OCME spokesperson said that the 71-year-old woman’s official cause of death was “Cardiac Arrythmia While Escaping Residential House Fire in a Person with Atherosclerotic and Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease, with other significant conditions of Obesity.”
The OCME also found that the manner of her death was “Accident.”
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Some local news outlets initially reported Monday night that the woman had died after jumping from an upper-floor window of the apartment building to escape the fire. Fire Chief Daniel Coughlin told the Independent Tuesday morning that American Medical Response (AMR) had provided that initial report about the woman dying after jumping out of a window; he said at the time that her death might have actually been caused by a medical emergency she experienced in the property’s parking lot. The OCME’s finding points to the latter being the case.
On Thursday morning, Coughlin told the Independent that the woman who died was a resident of a first-floor apartment at the Fountain Street complex.
“It’s tragic,” Coughlin said when asked for a comment about the OCME’s finding.
State police have repeatedly declined to comment on this case, stating only that their Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit (FEIU) is assisting the New Haven fire marshal’s office with the investigation.
Asked on Thursday for a comment on the OCME’s finding, a state police spokesperson wrote, “The incident remains under investigation at this time.”
The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.
