A 72-year-old Somerset Township, Wis., man who died in a house fire late Friday has been identified by relatives as Thomas H. Cook, a lifelong resident of the Apple River Valley.
His wife, Linda Cook, 62, escaped.
She told relatives that she thought her husband was behind her as she fled.
The farmhouse was half engulfed by the time firefighters arrived at the address, in the 2100 block of county Road I, said Somerset Fire Chief Travis Belisle. "The winds were very strong, and it was an old farmhouse, and the wind helped push the fire through it," he said.
Linda Cook was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with noncritical injuries.
Firefighters were eventually able to recover Cook's remains from the home, where generations of his family had lived.
The fire is under investigation.
Copyright 2012 - Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
