Authorities have identified a badly burned body firefighters discovered while combing through Boise homes that were destroyed by a wildfire on the city’s southeast side Monday night.
The Ada County Coroner says a “tentative identification” shows the victim was Boise State University professor Mary Ellen Ryder.
The cause of death has not been determined.
Police say it’s too soon to tell if Ryder is the same woman who was reported missing as the blaze started on Monday evening in a vacant field of sage brush and spread up the ridge to the line of homes-the body was discovered early Tuesday.
At least 19 homes were damaged or destroyed and no other residents were injured, but 17 police officers and at least one firefighter were treated for various injuries at local hospitals. (AP)