A Windermere couple
trapped inside a burning lakefront home perishes, police say.
A Windermere couple was killed in their lakefront home early Saturday morning after a house fire, police say.
Ken Ward, 71, and his wife Susan Ward, 69, were found dead by firefighters despite efforts by neighbors and first responders to rescue them.
Windermere Mayor Gary Bruhn said he knew the Wards well.
“They were inseparable,” he said. “You would not see one without the other. I guess if you think about it they are still inseparable.”
Windermere police responded around 12:45 a.m. Saturday to the fire at the home in the 1000 block of Main Street.
Officers tried to break a back window to go inside, but the home was too engulfed in flames.
Neighbor Doug Bowman, 53, said he was sleeping when he heard yelling outside.
A neighbor was trying to get the victims out of the house.
“When I came outside, the flames were above the treeline,” he said. “It was just shocking.”
The Ocoee Fire Department and Orange County Fire Rescue responded to put out the fire. The Wards were found dead inside. There is no indication of foul play at this point, police say.
Bruhn received a call about the fire at 4 a.m.
He would seem them around town and at council meetings.
“Ken and Susan were those kind of people who were very outgoing,” Bruhn said. “Everybody knew them.”
Bowman, who’s lived across the street from the Wards for 14 years, said he would often see them while walking his dog.
“They were always very kind to me,” he said. “It’s very sad.”
The three-bedroom home on Lake Butler was valued at nearly $1 million.
The State Fire Marshal has been called in to investigate the cause of the fire.
No other details were released.