Victim in fatal Oak Street house fire identified

Coroner reports that the fire was an accident and that the woman died from asphyxia

By Louis Krauss • November 10, 2017 11:30 pm

The woman who died in Monday’s house fire on Oak Street in Aberdeen has been identified as 43-year-old Deborah Kay Plummer, Grays Harbor Coroner Lane Youmans announced in an email Thursday afternoon.

After the autopsy, Youmans said it was an accidental fire and that the cause of death was asphyxia due to inhalation of toxic combustible materials. He added that Plummer had suffered burn injuries.

The Aberdeen Fire Department has been unable to determine a certain cause of the fire, but Police Lt. Kevin Darst said they are thinking it may have been a cigarette in Plummer’s bedroom, where she was found.

“They’re guessing that she might’ve been smoking in bed, but they can’t prove that because everything is disintegrated,” Darst said to The Daily World. He ruled out the fire starting due to any electrical-ignition sources, and said that most of the fire damage occurred in the house’s two bedrooms, which did not have access to the outside.

Plummer’s daughter, Cassie Hartford, was on the sidewalk with her friend, Brittany Boatsman, both 23, immediately after the fire was extinguished. Prior to the fire, Boatsman said they were hanging out in a house across the street and emerged after hearing sirens.

“Her mom lives in that house, as far as we know she went to lie down a little while ago to take a nap,” said Boatsman.

According to Boatsman, Hartford was messaging her mother on Facebook 20 minutes before fire trucks first showed up. In their conversations, Plummer told Hartford she was tired and was going to lie down.

Hartford’s boyfriend, Joshua West, 27, said he and another friend tried to enter the house to find Plummer before fire fighters responded, but were unsuccessful.

“We got from the door, probably about 15 feet back,” said West. “But it was bad.”

Boatsman, who has been friends with Hartford for 10 years, said that Plummer was “like a mother” to her, and said she was “most definitely the most loving and kind person” that she had met. For the last two years, Plummer had been a stay-at-home mom for Hartford and her 17-year-old son, Derek, but prior to that spent 11 years as an assistant manager at Navy Getaways Pacific Beach, a resort reserved for active and retired military personnel.