A Plantation community is shaken after a fire ripped through a home early Thursday, killing a doctor who many described as sweet and friendly.
A bouquet of roses sat outside the entrance of Dr. Karen Ruthman's home on Thursday night. Just steps away, inspectors left orange stickers to mark the home as an unsafe structure.
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"She was an amazing person. Infectious, I would say. Just pure love," Aimee Laclaustra said. "There was nothing bad about her. She inspired our community."
Laclaustra, who said Ruthman was like a mother to her, stood outside the home to cry and to grieve.
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"Karen and her husband took me in and took care of me for many years," she said. "Everything was normal. She was loved by everybody."
Neighbors identified Ruthman, a local family medicine physician, as the person who died in a house fire before 4 a.m. on Northwest 124th Avenue and 23rd Court.
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"She was always sweet and friendly," said Vivian Dingman, who lives across the lake. "It’s such a sad story that she passed like that."
Dingman said her daughter saw smoke and flames nearby.
"She looked and said, 'Mom, there’s smoke all over, all over the area,'" she said. "We looked and we saw that was the house in the back that was on fire ... You could hear the glass breaking all over the place."
Plantation Fire Rescue showed up to the home engulfed in flames and found a woman unresponsive inside. Investigators said Ruthman was the only one home at the time.
Her husband, identified by friends and neighbors as local gynecologist Dr. Barrington Murray, was not home when firefighters got there.
Officials said, for now, they’re calling it a death investigation.
Footage from Chopper6 showed the large property and a red gas canister near the front door.
NBC6 stopped by Ruthman's Weston office, which was closed Thursday. Her colleagues said they were too distraught to speak.
Plantation Police said they’re interviewing several people as part of their investigation. It’s likely Ruthman’s husband is one of those people.
