Woman dies after fire at Cotati apartment complex

A 70-year-old Cotati woman died early Saturday morning of burns she received after she likely fell asleep while smoking and set herself on fire.

The resident of the Charles Street Village senior apartment complex was discovered around 10:15 p.m. Friday on a still-smoldering futon in her living room, said Rancho Adobe Fire Battalion Chief Mike Weihman.

She was still alive when firefighters discovered her but had burns over about 50 percent of her body, Weihman said.

She was taken by ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, then flown by helicopter to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where she died early Saturday, Weihman said.

“It’s terrible,” neighbor Linda Daniels, 68, said. “What a way to go.”

Neighbors identified the woman as Claudia Rickman. The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office could not be reached Saturday for an official identification.

Neighbors said she was in poor health and barely mobile, using a walker to get around.

An electric wheelchair and walker sat on the apartment patio Saturday afternoon beside a jade plant and ceramic turtle. A second walker and wheelchair could be seen inside the apartment beside a futon frame just a few feet from the front door.

The fire was not large. It was contained to the immediate area of the futon and was largely extinguished by the unit’s overhead sprinkler system. But because the flames were so close to her body, the woman’s burns were severe, Weihman said.

“Unfortunately, the thing she was sitting on as well as her clothing were some of the very first things that caught fire,” he said.

There was no smoke showing from the exterior of the unit when firefighters arrived, just the sound of the fire alarm. When firefighters entered the unit, the smoke was so thick they couldn’t see more than 2 feet, Weihman said. That prevented them from immediately locating the woman.

It was only after firefighters set up fans to ventilate the unit that they spotted the woman, removed her and started lifesaving measures, Weihman said.

From the time firefighters arrived at the scene until they discovered her was about seven minutes, Weihman said. It took five minutes for the alarm to be relayed to the station and for firefighters to get on scene, he said.

Some residents felt the response time was slow for a department located just a few hundred feet from the complex.

“That fire alarm was going off for a long time before anybody showed up,” Daniels said.

Weihman said the only response delays involved the alarm company’s having to relay the call to the county emergency communication center, and the alarm company’s not identifying where in the complex the fire was. That caused firefighters to go first to the front of the complex when the fire was actually at the rear, Weihman said.

Even so, he said, from the time the call was received to the time firefighters arrived on scene was three minutes.

Daniels was up watching a movie when she heard the alarm go off. Initially, there was no indication it was a fire versus a routine medical call, she said.

“Once they opened the door and smoke started billowing out, then everybody started taking it seriously,” Daniels said. “It was very upsetting for everyone.”

Daniels and others said it was well known in the complex that Rickman smoked in her apartment against the rules.

The quiet complex of 55 garden units is managed by Burbank Housing of Santa Rosa. Residents said the property manager said she couldn’t enforce the rule unless the woman was spotted smoking in the unit, highlighting the enforcement challenge of nonsmoking regulations.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.