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Crews recover woman's body after Union, Ky. house fire

Posted at 12:09 PM, Jan 24, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-24 18:18:31-05

UNION, Ky. — UNION, Ky. — After a days-long search, fire crews in Union recovered the body of a woman missing since her house caught fire on Tuesday.

Union Fire Chief Michael Morgan said crews found the woman's body in the basement of her home on Caitlin Drive in Triple Crown.

The search for the missing woman started after crews were able to contain the fire Tuesday. According to Morgan, the way the house collapsed from the fire made it difficult to sift through the rubble and debris.

“There was so much building material on top of different rooms,” Morgan said. “It was pretty close to the last part of the basement when it collapsed — it wasn’t so easy — it collapsed in different fashions.”

Morgan said identifying the cause of the fire could take a long time.

“We’ve been doing some recovery of appliances and electrical issues and trying to eliminate those kinds of causes. That’ll go on for a long time — some of that stuff may be sent back to a lab, but a lot of it is hard to recover because it’s so extensively damaged,” Morgan said.

Family pets, including two dogs and one rabbit, were also found dead in the rubble.

Neighbors watching the fire said a woman lived alone in the house with her dogs.

“Just the tragedy of it, you know. I don’t think anybody should have to go through something like this,” neighbor Norma Pajk said.

Morgan said the family has been notified and the body has been sent to Louisville for an autopsy for official identification.