A woman’s body was recovered Tuesday morning from the rubble of a three-story apartment building on Spruce Street in Rumford. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times
RUMFORD — The State Fire Marshal’s Office has tentatively identified the woman who died in a fire in her apartment Monday night as Jane Bubar, 73, of 22 Spruce St.
Investigators found a body Tuesday morning in the debris of the first-floor apartment belonging to Bubar, who is unaccounted for, according to a statement from Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland.
The state Medical Examiner’s Office and the State Police DNA Lab are working to positively identify the victim.
Fire investigators said the fire started in Bubar’s apartment, but the cause cannot be determined because of extensive damage to the three-story building.
The fire was reported about 11 p.m. Monday. Firefighters were aware soon after they arrived that someone had not gotten out of the burning building, Rumford Fire Chief Chris Reed said.
“There was a medical issue there about 90 minutes earlier,” Reed said. “Med-Care was there. She was on the floor. They put her in a chair. Nothing really major medically wrong with her. Then they left.”
Families living on the second and third floors escaped unharmed, authorities said.
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