Man Dies in Condo Fire, Wife Rescued

A 76-year-old man died and his wife was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday after an early-morning blaze at their Port Hueneme condominium.

Firefighters and police broke into the burning condo on West Elfin Green Street in the Hueneme Bay complex shortly after midnight and rescued Beverly Burleigh, 77, who was lying unconscious partway out the patio door. Robert Burleigh was found in his bedroom, dead of smoke inhalation. The couple’s dog also died in the blaze.

Officials on Tuesday were investigating the cause of the fire, which they say started in a bedroom.

Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Joe Luna said the condo had no smoke detectors.

“It just breaks our hearts to look at this fire and to say that, with a little device in place, it could have made a difference,” Luna said. “Smoke detectors do save lives.”

Because the condos had firewalls, damage to adjoining units was not extensive, Luna said. Investigators had not made a damage estimate.

Leonard Bane, 61, the Burleighs’ next-door neighbor, said his wife was awakened just after midnight by the sound of popping glass.

“She looked out and saw flames and hollered at me that the house was on fire,” Bane said. “I grabbed a hose and was trying to put it out. But it was too much for a garden hose.” He said police and firefighters arrived a short time later.

Beverly Burleigh was taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

Her husband’s death was the county’s first fire fatality since 2002, Luna said.

Bane said the couple moved into the condo last summer. He said Burleigh, who used a sit-down scooter to get around, had broken his hip about a month ago when he fell off the motorized vehicle.

Senior Deputy Medical Examiner Mike Feiler said that one of the Burleighs’ two sons told him his father had been using a walker recently.

Jean Soeder, another neighbor, said the Burleighs had moved to Port Hueneme from Lake Arrowhead because it was so expensive to obtain dialysis for Robert Burleigh there.

Both Robert and Beverly Burleigh smoked, she said.

Soeder said the Burleighs’ condo appeared to be badly damaged and the Banes’ home had sustained water damage after firefighters punched holes in the wall.

Her condo was not damaged. “Thank God for firewalls,” she said.

Luna pleaded for residents to have working smoke detectors in every sleeping area. “Install them, maintain them. Don’t borrow the battery to put in your CD player,” he said.

Jason Smith, chief executive of the local Red Cross chapter, said his group’s youth volunteers go into communities where fires have recently occurred to distribute smoke detectors and disaster-preparedness information. They will canvass the Hueneme Bay neighborhood next month, he said.