LUCERNE ? According to a press release issued by Captain James Bauman, public information officer for Lake County Sheriff”s Office (LCSO), on Monday at approximately 4:50 a.m., the North Shore Fire Protection District was dispatched to a reported structure fire on the corner of 2nd and Highland Avenues in Lucerne. Sheriff”s deputies were also dispatched to the area for crowd control as firefighters arrived to find a fully engulfed single-wide mobile home ablaze.
After about a half hour into battling the fire, emergency personnel on scene requested the Lake County Arson Task Force be responded to investigate the cause of the fire. Sheriff”s detectives were also called out due to information that Harry Jon Waner, 58, may have been in the home when the fire broke out and that human remains were believed to be amongst the rubble.
After securing a search warrant for the remains of the home, Arson Task Force members from North Shore Fire, Cal Fire, Lake County Fire, the Sheriff”s Department, and an arson dog team from the Woodland Fire Department investigated the scene throughout the morning and into the afternoon. After about three hours into the investigation, Sheriff”s detectives learned that Waner”s wife, Sandra Jean Bronson, 53, was at the home the previous night in violation of a domestic violence protection order. Bronson was located at another home in the neighborhood at about 9 a.m. and subsequent to questioning she was arrested for violating the restraining order. Determination of the cause of the fire and the identity of the remains found in the debris are both pending further investigation. Bronson was booked at the Lake County Jail for misdemeanor violation of a domestic violence protection order. She remains in custody with an enhanced bail of $250,000 pending further investigation into the fire.
Further information on the case will be released as it is confirmed by the Arson Task Force and the Sheriff”s Major Crimes Unit.
