Investigators probe cause of fatal fire

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December 31, 2007

Information may be released by week’s end

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL The Commercial-News Mon Dec 31, 2007, 06:55 PM CST

POTOMAC — Everything was quiet in the 200 block of Vermilion Street in Potomac early Sunday morning as Linda Wagoner let her and her husband’s bloodhound outside at about 6:30 a.m.

“There was nothing then,” she recalled Monday. “I didn’t see or smell anything.”

But things changed quickly for the neighborhood as fire swept through a home a short time later, injuring a father and killing his daughter in the process.

Savanna Lynn Bruns, 16, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Vermilion County coroner’s office following the fire at 203 Vermilion St.

Wagoner said the blaze moved quickly through the one-story home, with the front of her neighbor’s home, including the living room, engulfed in flames by the time she realized it.

The Brunses, who had lived in the home about a year, were good neighbors, Wagoner said, adding they got along with everybody in the neighborhood.

Watching the home burn was difficult.

“I stood out there,” she said. “It makes you feel sick to your stomach to watch.”

Local and state officials continue to investigate the blaze. Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department investigators are looking into Bruns’ death, while the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office is examining the cause of the blaze.

A spokeswoman for the fire marshal’s office said the investigation is continuing, but at this point a cause for the fire is not being released. That includes a preliminary indication as to whether the fire is considered suspicious.

An announcement may be made toward the end of the week, the spokeswoman said.

Capt. Rod Kaag, chief investigator for the sheriff’s department, said at this point there is nothing to indicate foul play in the 16-year-old girl’s death.

An exact cause of death will await test results from the Illinois State Police Crime Labs. Coroner Peggy Johnson said samples for toxicology testing have been sent out.

The tests will cover myriad chemical levels in the body, including any elevated presence of carbon monoxide because of smoke inhalation.

Johnson said an autopsy will not be conducted because there is no question in her mind as to the fire’s involvement in Bruns’ death. She added it was the family’s preference that an autopsy not be performed.

John Bruns was taken to Memorial Medical Center in Springfield for treatment of burns he suffered as a result of the fire. Wagoner said he and a friend who lived nearby attempted to force their way back into the home to save his daughter, causing the burns.

Bruns was originally listed in serious condition on Sunday, but a spokeswoman for the hospital said he was no longer a patient at the Springfield facility as of Monday afternoon.

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