Former county resident died in California fires
Linda Tunis lived near West Palm Beach before heading west.
Linda Tunis, 69, who lived in Golden Lakes, moved to Santa Rosa to be near her family.
WEST PALM BEACH — A former suburban West Palm Beach woman is among those killed by wildfires in Northern California that have taken the lives of 41 people as of Monday.
Linda Tunis, 69, died after fire engulfed the mobile-home community where she lived in Santa Rosa, her son confirmed Monday.
Tunis apparently got trapped in her home in the early morning hours of Oct. 9, making a final desperate phone call to her daughter.
“I’m going to die,” Jessica Tunis told the Associated Press, repeating her mother’s last words. Linda Tunis’ phone then went dead.
After searching at multiple hospitals, Robert Tunis found his mother’s body in the remains of her residence. An Associated Press photo of the area where Linda Tunis’ home stood shows little except charred debris.
During a brief phone interview Monday, Robert Tunis confirmed that his mother once lived near West Palm Beach and that she died in the fire at the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park, a retirement community about 60 miles north of San Francisco where the remains of at least one other person have been found.
Records show that Linda Tunis owned a home on the 100 block of Lake Carol Drive in Golden
Lakes, a community west of the West Palm Beach city limits, until selling it in May 2016.
Jessica Tunis told the San Francisco Chronicle that her mother had moved there from West Palm Beach in January to be closer to her family. She had a series of health issues, including a stroke and high blood pressure, and had lost her sight in one eye, but remained staunchly independent, her daughter said.
“My mother’s remains have been found at her home at Journey’s End,” Jessica Tunis posted on her Facebook page last week. “May she rest in peace. my sweet Momma.”
More than 6,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed in California’s wine country region, and the 41 people killed make them the deadliest wildfires in state history.