CASITAS SPRINGS : Elderly Woman Dies in Trailer Home Fire

An elderly Casitas Springs woman died in a trailer home fire Thursday while her horrified neighbors watched helplessly from outside.

The elderly woman, identified by her neighbors as Edith Turner, had lived alone in the trailer in the Arroyo Mobile Home Park, 9097 Ventura Ave. The trailer was completely destroyed by the fire.

One neighbor tried to help but was repelled by the smoke. Another neighbor, John Tennant, called to her from outside her window.

“He hollered to her, ‘Edith, get the hell out,’ ” said Wilma Lawrence, manager of the mobile home park.

“She yelled back, ‘I can’t get out.’ He couldn’t get in because it was a mass of flames.”

Three fire engines from the Ventura County Fire Department responded at 5:34 p.m. and had the fire under control by 5:50 p.m., said Jim Renshaw, the Fire Department’s public information officer.

Neither Renshaw nor an investigator with the coroner’s office could confirm the victim’s identity.

“We think it is a woman,” the coroner’s investigator said. “She is pretty badly burned.”

Renshaw said the fire started after a cigarette was discarded in a love seat at the front of the mobile home. The victim was found in an enclosed patio in the back. Neighbors said she was a chain smoker.

Next-door neighbor Esther Brown noticed the flames about 5:30 p.m. and summoned the Fire Department. “It burst out like a bomb all at once before anybody knew what was happening,” said Brown, 80.

Another neighbor, Richard Gajefski, smelled smoke and rushed to help but was hit by a wall of smoke. Gajefski suffered smoke inhalation but refused treatment, Renshaw said.

Neighbors said Turner had no relatives in the area. Two sons lived in Ohio. “She was very secretive about her family,” Brown said.

Brown said she had planned to take extra strawberries over to Turner because they had not had their daily chat. “She was a nice little gal,” Brown said. She estimated Turner’s age at 85.

Lawrence, the mobile home park’s manager, said Turner was a poor but proud woman who refused any help. “The owner of the trailer park wanted to pay for her gas bill because she shuts off her gas every winter to save money,” Lawrence said. “But she wouldn’t accept it. She said she didn’t want any charity.”