Strangulation Victim’s Body Found After Fire : Port Hueneme: She was thought to have succumbed to smoke. A Ventura woman’s death is also being probed.

Firefighters battling a two-alarm blaze at a Port Hueneme condominium early Thursday discovered the body of a 44-year-old woman who had been strangled to death, authorities said.

The body of Cindy Burger was found in the tub of a first-floor bathroom, although the fire apparently started in Burger’s second-story bedroom, firefighters said.

Port Hueneme police were investigating the incident, along with Ventura County firefighters.

Until an autopsy revealed Burger had been strangled, investigators were looking into the possibility that she had died from smoke inhalation.

“What I found in the bedroom indicated the fire started at the end of the bed,” said Bill Hagar, an investigator with the Ventura County Fire Department. The fire may have started accidentally from a malfunctioning electric blanket or a heating pad, or it may have been deliberately set, he said.

Burger worked as customer service manager at Gold Coast Acura in Ventura, said Pat Murphy, general at the dealership. She had been employed there since 1986, when her father, Had Burger, opened the company.

The fire was discovered shortly after 5:30 a.m. by Kenny Dilldine, who lives next door to Burger’s residence in the 2500 block of Outlook Cove.

Dilldine, 41, said he woke up after smoke began drifting into his second-floor bedroom window. When he looked out, he saw smoke pouring from Burger’s condo. Dilldine then ran next door and broke out the front window with a large potted plant.

“I got halfway up the stairs and then I couldn’t go any further” because of the smoke and heat, he said.

Hagar said the fire most likely smoldered and burned for at least 50 minutes before it was detected by Dilldine. The fire burned intensely, he said, because it ignited a foam rubber mattress which then melted into a flammable liquid and ignited the area between the bedroom and the first-floor ceiling.

As firefighters mopped up Thursday morning, a hole approximately eight feet by four feet was visible in the floor where Burger’s bed had been.

Until the autopsy was performed, authorities had said it was possible Burger ran downstairs to the bathroom after breathing in toxic fumes and became disoriented. However, she would have had to run past her front door to reach the bedroom.

Toxicology tests were being conducted to determine if Burger had been sexually assaulted, but the results will not be ready for several weeks, police said. Detectives could not be reached for comment.

Dilldine, who lived next door to Burger for about four years, described her as a quiet woman who did not smoke or drink. He also said she was a conscientious neighbor.

“I fixed her garage door one day, and the next day there was a note on my doorstep with some chocolates,” he said.

In addition to the Port Hueneme fire, investigators are trying to determine the exact cause of a house fire that claimed the life of a 76-year-old Ventura woman early Thursday morning.

Deputy Coroner Zelmira Isaac said Agnes Donahue died of inhaling poisonous fumes given off during the blaze that gutted much of her condominium at 3700 Dean Drive. Donahue was found on the floor of her bathroom beneath a door that had fallen on her.

No official cause has been determined, but investigators believe a heater in Donahue’s bedroom may have ignited the fire, said Bill Rigg, battalion chief with the Ventura City Fire Department.

“There was nothing really to indicate it was arson, I think it’s an accidental fire,” he said.

The blaze gutted Donahue’s bedroom and caused an estimated $50,000 in damage to the structure and $25,000 in contents damage.

Mildred Solomon, who lives in the unit above Donahue, said she woke up when she heard her windows breaking out from the heat.

“I went to the patio and I yelled ‘Help! Fire! Help, help!”

Solomon said a man with a searchlight then raced up her steps, put a mask over her nose and took her down the stairs past the flames.