Authorities have confirmed the death of a 70-year-old woman who was fleeing a massive Southern California wildfire.
The Ventura County medical examiner says Virginia Pesola of Santa Paula was killed in a car crash along an evacuation route Wednesday night.
The cause of death announced Friday was blunt force trauma with terminal smoke inhalation and burns.
Pesola's death is the first connected to six wildfires ravaging the region. She was found in a car in Wheeler Canyon in Santa Paula. The area northwest of Los Angeles was threatened by a wind-whipped blaze that erupted Monday and has destroyed hundreds of homes.