Victim of Regency Tower fire identified
KRDO has confirmed the identity of the lone victim from the Regency Tower fire that broke out more than a week ago.
Family confirms that 89-year-old Darlyne Justesen, a tenth floor resident at the Regency Tower, succumbed to injuries from smoke caused by the fire.
“With so many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and children, she was all over the place all the time,” said Justesen’s grandson, Mike Roe.
Justesen, or Grandma Dar as Roe likes to call her, was inside her 10th-floor apartment in the Regency Tower when flames and smoke broke out May 24th. She was transported over to a local Colorado Springs hospital but succumbed to her injuries last Tuesday.
“There was nerve damage, a lot of nerve and lung damage,” said Roe. “The oxygen wasn’t getting to the brain properly. So it was deteriorating quickly.”
While in the hospital, Roe said there were times when his grandmother’s health appeared to be improving. However, doctors said treatment for the injuries would be long and difficult.
Justesen declined to go through the treatment and decided to join other family members long gone.
“She believed heavily in an afterlife,” said Roe. “Wherever she is now, that’s where she wanted to be.”
Dozens more Regency Tower residents remain displaced after the fire. Many still remain in the Red Cross shelter at Cheyenne Mountain High School.
John Finn, a retired man out of La Junta, helped his 87-year old friend, Peggy, escape the shelter by paying for a hotel. That cost Finn more than $100 every night.
“Peggy was not physically able to go to a high school and live on a cot,” said Finn. “With her medical conditions, and her mobility that wasn’t a viable option.”
Investigators say there are numerous possible causes for the fire. The damages left by the fire also made it difficult to determine an official cause.
The investigation is ongoing.
It is not clear when people will be able to go back into the Regency Tower.
The Regency Tower management will be holding a meeting for residents this Wednesday at 10 a.m. to give an update on the condition of the building and when people can move back into their homes.
