Coroner's office identifies two women killed in Vestavia Hills apartment fire

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office today identified the two women killed in an apartment complex fire in Vestavia Hills last night.

The women were identified as 62-year-old Carol Bester and 52-year-old Leslie Renee Bobo, Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said. Both women lived in separate apartments in the Vestawood complex near Columbiana and Massey Roads, where a fire was reported about 9 p.m. Thursday.

When firefighters arrived on the scene three minutes after the fire was reported, there already was an extreme amount of fire and people were trapped in multiple units, fire officials said.

Firefighters were able to break through a masonry wall and save a trapped family of five, but Bester and Bobo did not make it out. Their bodies were found inside the fire remains, and they were pronounced dead on the scene, Yates said.

The exact cause of death has not been determined, he said. It likely will take four to six weeks before a final report is issued, but their deaths do appear to have been related to the fire, he said.

See more about the fire here.