LAKEPORT, Calif. – Authorities have filed criminal charges against a former resident of a Lakeport apartment complex for the fire in August that killed another resident and injured several others.
Tracey Renee Morales, 62, is facing felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and recklessly causing a fire, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Rasmussen said the charges stem from the investigation’s conclusion that Morales was smoking while using an oxygen tank, which led to the fire on the evening of Sunday, Aug. 21, at the Lakeview Senior Housing complex, located at 525 Bevins St.
Deborah Dianne Dowdy, 53, died in the fire and four other residents also were injured, including a woman who had to be flown out-of-county for burns and three treated locally for smoke inhalation, as Lake County News has reported.
When fire and police arrived at the scene of the fire on Aug. 21, they began evacuating the residents out of the two-story, 36-unit complex.
Witnesses told police that they had seen Dowdy outside, but firefighters would later find her body in an elevator during a sweep of the building. Rasmussen said they still don’t know why she had gone back inside the complex.
The rest of the residents of the complex, managed by Rural Communities Housing Development Corp. of Ukiah, were displaced for months while the extensive damage from the fire was repaired, with city officials working to help find them temporary housing. Rasmussen said they were finally able to return home last last year.
Rasmussen said Lakeport Police and Lakeport Fire investigators, assisted by investigators from Northshore Fire, Lake County Fire and Cal Fire, conducted a cause and origin and criminal investigation of the circumstances of the fire and Dowdy’s death.
He said they concluded that the fire started due to Morales’ negligence.
In March, the Lakeport Police Department presented the final investigation reports to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office which confirmed that it filed felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and recklessly causing a fire against Morales.
On Thursday, a Lake County Superior Court judge issued an arrest warrant for Morales on the charges, Rasmussen said.
On the same day, at the request of the Lakeport Police Department, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office located Morales in that county and issued her a notice to appear in Lake County Superior Court to answer to the charges, according to Rasmussen.
Rasmussen said Morales was not booked into jail at that time due to a medical issue.
Morales is required to appear on the case in Lake County Superior Court on June 20, Rasmussen said.
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Former resident charged in fatal August 2016 apartment fire
- Elizabeth Larson
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