landlord<\/a>. Her cause of death remains under investigation, according to the Alameda County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s Coroner\u2019s Bureau.\u00a0<\/p>\nAuthorities have not said what started the fire, which is also still under investigation.<\/p>\n
The coroner\u2019s office was unable to formally identify Bruns at first due in part to extensive burns to her body.<\/p>\n
Steve Moros, who owns the duplex where Bruns lived, said she frequently kept her unit filthy, with old food and dirt strewn around her kitchen, and cigarette butts on the floors.<\/p>\n
Moros often asked Bruns if he could help her shape up the apartment but she would refuse, he said. She would also sometimes refuse to allow inspectors from the Berkeley Housing Authority, which administers the Section 8 housing voucher program for tenants like Bruns, to visit the unit, Moros said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really trying with the Berkeley Housing Authority, I did tell them many times that she needed help,\u201d Moros said. \u201cIt just seemed like a lot more could\u2019ve been done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bruns also appeared to have had several health scares, with paramedics coming to her unit five or six times over the last two years, Moros said.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 4, Moros was working at the Bancroft Community Garden, where he is garden coordinator, when a visitor told him there was a smell of smoke in the air. Moros thought it might be a garden beekeeper using smoke until a neighbor called to say Moros\u2019s duplex, a couple parcels away, was on fire.<\/p>\n
Moros and another neighbor rushed to the building and knocked on Bruns\u2019s door, shouting for her to get out. Moments later firefighters arrived and carried out Bruns\u2019s body, trying unsuccessfully to resuscitate her on a nearby sidewalk, Moros said.<\/p>\n
Moros said authorities told him the fire appeared to have begun near a sofa in Bruns\u2019s living room.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772056868_246_IMG_8727-2560x1920.jpg\")
Police and firefighters work outside the Poe Street duplex where 74-year-old Mary Ellen Bruns died Feb. 4, 2026. Credit: Zac Farber\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n