A woman and multiple cats died in a house fire Wednesday morning on South Bend’s west side. The woman’s identity remains a mystery.
The South Bend Fire Department Wednesday issued a press release saying the fire happened around 5:30 a.m. in the 600 block of South Brookfield Street. It says that firefighters found the woman in the burning house and brought her outside but were unable to revive her.
At this point, we don’t know who died in the fire. When we asked the South Bend Fire Department, their spokeswoman referred us to the coroner. But when we called that office, Coroner Patricia Jordan also refused to provide the woman’s name. Jordan said it's her personal policy to never give the news media any information.
However, Indiana Code states several types of information that a coroner must release to the public, and the list starts with, “The name, age, address, sex, and race of the deceased.”
WVPE will report the name of the woman who died as soon as it’s available.
