The medical examiner’s office has ruled that burns and smoke inhalation killed a woman found Saturday night inside a fire-ravaged residential garage in north Minneapolis.
The office’s announcement Tuesday evening of its determination follows Sunday’s statement from city fire officials that the blaze did not kill Margaret Coleman as she occupied her vehicle.
In a statement issued Wednesday morning, the Fire Department accepted the medical examiner’s findings.
Coleman, 62, who lived at the residence in the 1200 block of Newton Avenue N. where the fire broke out, “died of thermal injury and smoke inhalation due to a fire,” the examiner’s office said in a statement.
While not yet revealing how the fire began, police have ruled out Coleman’s death being a homicide.
Coleman’s death is city’s fourth from fire in Minneapolis this year.

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