Community

Update: Disabled woman dead after Berkeley apartment fire

On April 11, authorities released the name of the woman who died. She was 64-year-old Michelle Ann Mulder.

The Berkeley Fire Department shared this video after the incident.

A disabled woman who was trapped in a Berkeley apartment fire over the weekend died after being rescued by first responders, according to authorities and early reports.

The Berkeley Fire Department was dispatched Friday at about 5 p.m. to a residential fire, with one person trapped inside, at Derby Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in South Berkeley.

According to radio dispatches reviewed by The Scanner, the resident was described as an older woman with a wheelchair. One of her neighbors knocked on her door and tried to help her, but there was no answer.

Callers said they could see smoke coming from the two-story apartment building, according to emergency dispatches.

Despite "zero visibility conditions," BFD was able to find the patient rapidly in the room that was on fire, the department said.

Firefighters extricated the resident quickly, but the individual already had severe burns as well as other life-threatening medical conditions, BFD said.

BFD rushed the woman to Highland Hospital with a trauma activation, according to emergency dispatches.

Ultimately, the resident did not survive, authorities said.

As of Tuesday, the woman's name was not available pending family notification, the coroner's office said.

"The Red Cross was requested to assist two displaced residents," BFD said Tuesday. "No firefighters [or] additional civilians were injured. The cost of damages is unknown. The investigation is ongoing with no cause identified yet."

In a prepared statement, BFD noted that the first fire crew to arrive on Derby Street "had recently been up staffed with an additional firefighter following a recommendation from a 2023 external analysis of fire department deployment and staffing."

"The additional staffing coupled with several years of intentional work within the organization to improve the effectiveness of its firefighting and search culture, resulted in an effective and efficient rescue," BFD said.

This is the fourth Berkeley Fire rescue during a residential fire this year.

Two of the patients survived and two ultimately perished.

In February, a 61-year-old disabled woman and the family dog died in a house fire on Cedar Street.

This story will be updated if additional details become available.

Update, April 11: Authorities have just released the name of the woman who died after the recent Berkeley apartment fire. She was 64-year-old Michelle Ann Mulder.

Correction: BFD originally provided the wrong date for this incident. The story has been fixed. Several additional details were also added to the story after publication.