Human Remains Found in Cooper Gulch Fire
Hank Sims / Thursday, March 14, 2013 @ 11:10 a.m. / News
Humboldt County Deputy Coroner Trevor Enright and Firefighters from Humboldt Bay Fire Protection District remove human remains from the swampy area of Cooper Gulch off of 14th Street in Eureka Thursday morning. The remains were discovered by firefighters early Thursday morning while responding to a fire in the gulch that was called in by a cab driver.
— Mark McKenna/Lost Coast Outpost
County Coroner Dave Parris just confirmed that a team from his office is investigating the discovery of human remains in the Cooper Gulch park area of Eureka, directly off 14th Street. The body is connected with a fire in that area overnight.
Parris told the Lost Coast Outpost that he received the call at around 4 o’clock this morning. A cab driver had noticed smoke coming from a swampy area of the gulch and called it in to the fire department. Because of poor vehicular access, firefighters battled the blaze — which turned out to be near a “large homeless encampment,” in Parris’ words — with hand tools and water from a nearby creek.
During the fight, they discovered charred human remains. Police, fire and coroners’ personnel are still on the scene.
Parris said that there is no indication of criminal activity at the moment, but the investigation is still in progress. The Lost Coast Outpost will have more on this soon.
