Coroner IDs woman killed in Cheyenne house fire

Feb. 27--CHEYENNE -- A fire that broke out in a home here Thursday morning claimed the life of the woman who lived there, 68-year-old Sharon Stoner.

Laramie County Coroner Ron Sargent identified Stoner as the fire's victim Friday.

He did so after city spokesman Scott Smith told the media that Cheyenne Fire and Rescue would not be releasing the name of the victim, citing its policy of not identifying fire victims.

Sargent said the cause and manner of Stoner's death have not yet been determined through her autopsy.

On Thursday, Fire Marshal Byron Mathews had said Fire and Rescue was withholding the name of the victim pending the coroner's notification of next-of-kin.

Firefighters responded to 3515 Amherst Road around 6:35 a.m. that day to put out heavy smoke and flames coming from the back of a ranch-style house with a two-story addition in the back.

Before they arrived, two people referred to as "Good Samaritans" tried to save whoever was inside. One man has identified himself through social media posts as having tried his best to rescue Stoner.

"Everything was black and hot inside from so much thick smoke. I couldn't make it 5 feet inside on my hands and knees," Trent Eastman wrote on the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Facebook page.

The house is in central Cheyenne, not far from Carey Junior High on East Pershing Boulevard.

Tawny Brown is a neighbor of Stoner's. She said she knew Stoner as the grandparent of neighborhood kids.

"It's a pretty communal neighborhood," Brown said Friday by phone. "There is a lot of activity, and everybody is always out and about and speaking with one another. So it was more about knowing (her) in a neighborly fashion."

Brown said Stoner and her dog were the only residents of the home, to the best of her knowledge, and the dog also did not survive the fire.

She said she was awake Thursday morning when smoke started billowing from the structure.

"I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, that's got to be a fire,'" she said.

Brown said she took pictures of the damage to Stoner's house and noticed she had a wood-burning stove on the north side.

But a majority of the damage seemed to be on the south side, she noted.

The back end of the house, where the blaze did the most damage, housed one of the living spaces, Brown said.

Investigators with Fire and Rescue and the Cheyenne Police Department still are looking into what caused the fire.

Mathews, Cheyenne's fire marshal, said during a news conference Thursday that he couldn't recall the last time someone died in a house fire here.

When reached by phone Friday, Fire Chief Jim Martin declined to explain why his policy of not releasing the names of fire victims applies in situations in which the victim dies.

"As I explained to you before, we don't release names. That's always been my policy," Martin said.

Martin previously has said Fire and Rescue will not release the names of people hurt in fires -- including firefighters.

That's because he says it would be a violation of the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act, commonly known as HIPAA, since paramedics typically are on scene, treating those people.

When asked why, in the case of a person dying in a fire, Martin would have a policy of not identifying the person, he said he was doing so out of respect for the family. He also cited the ongoing nature of the investigation into the cause of the fire.

When asked what the victim's identity had to do with the investigation, Martin declined to comment further and ended the interview, referring the WTE to the city attorney's office.

Bruce Moats is a local attorney with expertise in media law. He disagrees that HIPAA prevents Fire and Rescue from identifying victims.

But even in the event it did, he said the identity of someone who died in a fire "wouldn't even be the kind of information that would be protected (by HIPAA) because it's not about the treatment of conditions."

Moats noted that other agencies do release the names of victims of vehicle crashes, murders or other incidents and crimes.

He added, "We don't (publish those names) just to invade somebody's privacy but (because) we know it's important to have open and candid discussions -- whether it's in a courtroom or the media.

"And I don't think it's disrespectful to be concerned about ... how (a person) died and who he or she is."

Moats said public officials' policies have to be based on statutory authority, and he doesn't see what law Martin could cite that supports his stance.

He said, though, that while the law lets citizens ask for public records, it does not mandate what public officials say.

"I think that's more an expectation of the public in a democracy -- that their public officials be ready to respond unless there's a good reason and some harm that would outweigh the public interest," he said.

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