Fire Kills Woman in Orange on Her 29th Birthday

In anticipation of her 29th birthday Thursday, Vanessa Sundstrom’s co-workers had decorated her desk and brought in a surprise birthday cake.

But Sundstrom never made it to work for the celebration. Only minutes after midnight, she was killed in a fire that started in her bedroom and spread through the apartment in Orange that she shared with her 42-year-old brother, Daniel.

Fire officials said her brother, who was not injured, tried unsuccessfully to rescue her after he was awakened by her cries for help.

Orange Fire Department officials said the blaze, which broke out at 12:06 a.m., is believed to have started accidentally in a wastebasket. And they speculated that Sundstrom had either left a cigarette burning or that a burning candle fell into it.

“It’s so sad,” said Shirley Mirer, Vanessa Sundstrom’s supervisor at the insurance office in Tustin where the young woman had worked as a typist for 10 years. “She was very well liked here.”

Lying Next to Bed

The victim’s badly burned body was found lying next to her bed by firefighters in the apartment in the 1400 block of North Glassell Street. An autopsy later Thursday determined that she died from smoke inhalation.

Daniel Sundstrom, who escaped the fire with minor burns, said he was awakened just after midnight by his sister’s cries.

“I heard some noise that sounded like ‘Help! Help!’ ” said Sundstrom, who rushed to his sister’s bedroom and opened the door. “I saw fire and went to the phone (to call 911). And our phone was out of order.”

Sundstrom said he then ran to a nearby apartment yelling “Fire! Fire! Fire!” and that a neighbor reported the blaze.

On Thursday afternoon, a thick, black grime covered paint on the walls and the bed was still smoldering in the room where investigators determined the blaze had started.

Fire officials said flames spread through the two bedrooms, hall and kitchen of the apartment, adding that it took six fire engines and 16 firefighters about 10 minutes to extinguish the flames.

Damage was estimated at $30,000 to the apartment and contents.

Wastebasket Ignited

Cause of the fire was attributed to either smoking materials or candles that ignited the contents of a wastebasket in the young woman’s room, according to Dave Rudat, a deputy fire marshal for the City of Orange.

Rudat said that investigators had confirmed through acquaintances of the victim that she smoked cigarettes, although her parents, Keith and Mary Sundstrom, had said she did not.

The woman’s father said that his daughter, a devout Catholic, would occasionally light candles atop her dresser for religious significance. He speculated that was why candles might have been burning when the fire broke out.

Sundstrom’s family grieved Thursday at their home in Orange. Her sister, Elsie, 23, wept openly as she remembered Vanessa.

“I would say we were more like friends,” she said. “We spent a lot of time together. . . . I could confide in her.”

Her parents remebered her as a happy woman who loved going to baseball and football games.

“As a little girl, she started collecting baseball cards,” her father said, remembering the beginning of her love for sports. “She was very special.”

Distraught co-workers at the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Cos. office in Tustin where Vanessa Sundstrom worked said they had bought a birthday cake and had planned a surprise celebration when she arrived Thursday morning..

“We had decorated her desk in anticipation of her coming in,” Mirer said sadly, and described the typist as “a very smiley person who was always happy and joking.”