Victim of Thursday fire identified as 87-year-old Oregon woman

The victim of Thurday’s fatal house in rural Oregon has been identified as Loretta Wolfe, 87, of Oregon, Ogle County Coroner Lou Finch said Friday.

Oregon Fire was dispatched to 1141 E. Spring Creek Road at 8:04 a.m. and was made aware a victim was still inside a burning 1.5 story residential single family home. Finch said the cause of death is still unofficial due to a pending toxicology screen in the autopsy.

Oregon Fire Chief Michael Knoup said Friday that the fire is still under investigation by the state fire marshal’s office, but will “probably” end up being ruled undetermined.

“I can tell you it’s not suspicious in nature,” Knoup said. “There were no lightning reports in the area or any storms or weather in that area. There was no gas. That’s been ruled out. The windows weren’t blown out.”

The house will likely be a total loss despite the structure still standing completely, Knoup said. The only damage to the house was to the inside.

With the fire in a rural area, all of the water to fight the fire had to be trucked out to the site on Thursday.

“We were prepared for that with our 3,500 gallon truck,” Knoup said. “We never ran out. The only tough part is, it burned too long before we were notified. I had 8-10 people at the station training when it was called in. We did everything right. It had burned inside unnoticed longer. That’s why she wasn’t able to be saved.”

Knoup believes the fire may have burned for as long as an hour inside before a person driving by noticed and called it in.

At least 10 area fire departments assisted at the scene, many of them trucking in water.

Those departments included Mt. Morris, Stillman Valley, Dixon City and Rural, Rochelle, Polo, Lynn-Scott Rock, Ashton, Leaf River and Franklin Center.