LAKEPORT, Calif. – The cause of a late-night home fire that claimed the life of a Lakeport woman on Saturday has been ruled accidental.
The fire, reported at approximately 11:43 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, destroyed the home at 1128 Crystal Lake Way of 86-year-old George "Ed" Neher and his wife, Wilna, 83.
Wilna Neher died as she was trying to escape, with firefighters finding her body just inside the home's front door, as Lake County News has reported.
Lakeport Fire Chief Ken Wells said Monday that fire investigators were able to trace the cause of the fire to rags that had been used to apply a treatment to the home's deck.
Wells said the rags had been stored in the home's garage, where George Neher had first witnessed the fire late Saturday night.
In an interview given on the scene early Sunday morning Wells had said that the couple had already gone to bed for the night when they heard crackling coming from the garage. When George Neher got up to see what was happening, he saw the garage filled with smoke.
Both Wells and the Lake County Sheriff's Office reported that George Neher told his wife to call 911 and leave the house before he went back to try to fight the fire in the garage.
However, Central Dispatch had told Wells early Sunday that the 911 call came from George Neher, not his wife.
In an e-mail to Lake County News Jessica Chernoh, the Nehers' granddaughter, said her grandfather did tell her grandmother to call 911. Wilna Neher dialed the phone and handed it to her husband so she could get dressed to leave the home.
According to Chernoh, at that point, George Neher ran outside before quickly trying to return to his wife. The fire spread so he ran to the front door, yelling for his wife to get out of the house.
Wilna Neher opened the front door and that's the last time her husband saw her, as he was turning to run from the burning home, according to Chernoh.
“At that point he said she was behind him and then the next thing he said she was gone,” Chernoh said in her e-mail.
Chernoh suggested that her grandmother may have gone back inside the house for something.
“He did everything he could to get her out,” Chernoh said of her grandfather.
Wells said early Sunday that Wilna Neher's body was found at 1:45 a.m. by firefighters after the fire was finally put out.
Lakeport Fire received assistance in fighting the blaze from Kelseyville Fire and Cal Fire, with a total of 18 firefighters responding.
The California Highway Patrol and a sheriff's deputy also were on scene. Wells said firefighters had been able to run large hoses to a fire hydrant about 400 feet away from the home.
The responding sheriff's deputy secured the home site after the fire was extinguished. By that point Wells said his district's two fire investigators were working the case, with additional investigators called to assist.
The sheriff's office said the body found in the home were removed by morning and a coroner's investigation began. The agency said the body was presumed to be Wilna Neher's, but was pending positive identification.
The home and garage were a total loss, according to Wells.
Chernoh said her grandparents would have celebrated their 64th anniversary later this month.
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