One person died in a house fire Wednesday morning in the Western Alaska village of Chefornak, according to Alaska State Troopers.
Troopers were informed of the fire in Chefornak, a Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta community of about 460 people nearly 100 miles southwest of Bethel, shortly before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to an online dispatch.
Troopers responded from Bethel and learned 72-year-old Theodore Kestler of St. Mary had died in the fire, "despite efforts by citizens" to save him, the dispatch said.
A deputy fire marshal is looking into the cause of the blaze, while Kestler's body was sent to Anchorage for an autopsy, the dispatch said.