Early Morning House Fire Victim Remembered as 'Sweet Lady'

City officials have identified Cynthia Robb as the lone fatality from the Monday morning fire at a home in the 5300 block of Oaklawn Avenue in Edina.

Fire officials reportedly found the 54-year-old collapsed inside of the front doorway of the house. Robb lived there along with her husband, Peter, and two daughters, officials said.

Cynthia Robb was the only resident home during the fire. No neighboring residences were damaged, as Fire Chief Marty Scheerer said the fire was "knocked down fairly quickly." State fire marshals are investigating the cause.

Crews responded to the area shortly after 4:45 a.m. Monday, when a neighbor called in to report the fire. Crews from Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Richfield, St. Louis Park and Hopkins assisted Edina firefighters. The one-and-a-half-story home is owned by Peter and Cynthia Robb, according to county records.

The first officer on the scene found the front door of the residence slightly ajar, with the victim just inside of the doorway. Robb was deceased at the time, with the officer reporting a significant amount of smoke inside the home. It appeared as though the fire had been burning for a long time when crews arrived, Scheerer said, as flames had come up through the floor joists.

"This is a great example of why residential fire sprinklers are necessary," he said.

Alarms within the home weren't sounding, but Scheerer said that doesn't necessarily mean there weren't working smoke detectors inside. They simply might have been going off for so long they died, he said.

Jeff Holker has lived a few houses down from the Robb family for nearly 20 years. Holker said the sudden death is hitting the neighborhood "pretty hard," choking up while talking about the situation.

He remembered Cynthia as "a sweet lady" who cared deeply for her family and neighbors.

"You couldn't meet a nicer woman," Holker said.

Monday's incident marks the second fire-related fatality in several months for Edina, following a of a 74-year-old woman.

Minnetonka Patch Local Editor Katelynn Metz contributed to this report.