Overland Park woman found dead after condo fire, officials say

An Overland Park woman was found dead Tuesday afternoon after a kitchen fire started in her condominium in the 9500 block of Outlook Drive, according to the fire department.

Firefighters were called to the area around 3:20 p.m., Jason Rhodes, an Overland Park Fire spokesman, said Tuesday. Arriving firefighters saw smoke coming from one of the two-story condos and entered the building.

The kitchen fire was quickly put out, Rhodes said, and the woman was found dead in the front room while firefighters were searching the home. A dead dog was also found inside the home.

No other injuries were reported. The cause of the woman’s death and the fire are being investigated by fire officials and police.

The fire department is withholding the woman’s identity until her family is notified. But neighbors say she was a 51-year-old woman who lived alone in the home with her dog and worked in a local antiques store.

Jean Ann Clemons, a next door neighbor, said she returned home around 3 p.m. from a doctor’s appointment to find her condo was “full of smoke and smelled horrible.” She said she searched around her own home and found no fire, deciding to call the fire department. She later learned the smoke was coming from her neighbor’s.

Clemons, who has lived in the condos since 1977, said she knew her neighbor well. They saw each other at least twice a week. She tried to get in touch with her at work but couldn’t. And then she learned that she had been inside the house, Clemons said.

“I’m very sad,” Clemons told The Star. “It was a shock.”