Woman’s Body Is Found in Ashes of Home : Chatsworth: Matriarch was mourning a daughter who died in 1991. Candles lit in dead child’s memory may have ignited blaze.

A Chatsworth woman, who helped pull family members together after the 1991 death of her daughter in a diving accident, died Tuesday in a fire that gutted the family home, authorities said.

Zahra (Soraya) Saberzadeh, 58, was found dead at about 10:45 a.m. in her living room after the blaze in the 20100 block of Mayall Street, firefighters and family members said.

Her body was so badly burned that investigators were unable to confirm her identity, but family members and authorities are virtually sure it was Saberzadeh.

Arson investigators and Los Angeles police detectives said the cause of the fire and the cause of her death were still under investigation. The fire caused more than $200,000 in damage, firefighters estimated.

The fire began about 10:30 a.m., when Saberzadeh was alone in the home. She was last seen about 30 minutes earlier, when she dropped her daughter and husband off at the Reseda tanning salon the family owns.

“We don’t know what happened,” said her husband, Mohammedali, 59, sobbing. “She was my wife for 36 years. She was the best thing in life. Now, she’s gone.”

Family members and friends said they fear that candles, which are scattered throughout the home to honor Saberzadeh’s deceased daughter, may have ignited the fire. Saberzadeh had been very depressed since the death of her daughter and may have not noticed the flames until it was too late, family members and friends said.

Family members said they have all been despondent since the death of Rochanak Saberzadeh, 22, in a scuba-diving accident near Santa Catalina Island in July, 1991. Family members said Soraya Saberzadeh helped the rest of them deal with the loss of Rochanak.

“We all fell apart,” said Soraya Saberzadeh’s son Ramin, 28. “She was sad all the time, but somehow she found the strength to help us all go on after my sister died.”

“I lost 30 pounds after my sister’s death, and my mother put me back together,” said Soraya Saberzadeh’s other daughter, Roya, 30. “If it weren’t for her, we never would have survived. She did everything for us.”

Rochanak Saberzadeh, a student at Cal State Northridge, died while diving in about 90 feet of water with five other students and two instructors in a popular diving area called Farnsworth Bank. Rochanak Saberzadeh was a member of the Sigma Kappa sorority and co-owned a Reseda shop specializing in clothing for sororities and fraternities. After Rochanak Saberzadeh’s death, her family established a scholarship in her name.

The family has lived in Chatsworth since 1979 after moving to the United States from Iran in 1977.

Roya Saberzadeh said her mother had a very tough life. Soraya Saberzadeh’s father died when she was 2, and her mother died when she was 17. In Iran, Soraya Saberzadeh was a midwife, and in Los Angeles, she raised children and then worked for the family’s business.

“We all relied on her to help us go on,” Roya Saberzadeh said, sobbing and clasping her hands over her head. “She gave of herself all of her life. I don’t know what we’ll do with out her.”