Bedroom Engulfed : Fire Kills Woman Despite Family’s Rescue Attempt

A 19-year-old Newhall woman died in a fire in her bedroom Friday despite efforts by members of her family to save her, the Los Angeles County Fire Department reported.

The body of Annamaria Dominguez was found on the floor of her bedroom after firefighters extinguished the 2 a.m. blaze in the home she shared with her father, three brothers and another woman in the 25000 block of Walnut St., officials said.

Capt. Mike Brownlie said the cause of the fire was unknown, though investigators have ruled out arson, electrical malfunction and smoking. Investigators found the remains of a candle--a broken holder and melted wax--in the gutted bedroom, but family members said they had never known the victim to leave a candle burning while she slept, Brownlie said.

“The investigation is continuing,” Brownlie said. “But we spent four hours in that room looking for something, and we were stymied.”

He said laboratory tests of materials taken from the room may help determine the cause of the fatal fire.

According to fire officials, members of the Dominguez family awoke about 2 a.m. smelling smoke in the three-bedroom house. When they traced the smoke to the victim’s bedroom they opened the door and found the room already engulfed in flames.

“They tried to get in the room but were unable to because of the heat and smoke,” Brownlie said.

The family members, who authorities declined to identify Friday, called the Fire Department and ran out of the house. Brownlie said they smashed a window in the burning bedroom and began spraying water into the room with a garden hose. Firefighters arrived and put the fire out a few minutes later, but Dominguez was already dead, Brownlie said.

The fire gutted the bedroom and an adjoining hallway, causing damge estimated at $20,000, Brownlie said.

Brownlie said the home had a smoke detector in a hallway, but it did not have batteries in it at the time of the fire. But even if it had been working, it was probably not close enough to the bedroom to have detected the fire in time to have saved the woman’s life, Brownlie said.