Fire guts two townhouses

Cathy Scott

Tuesday, June 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

What easily could have been a tragedy ended in tears and hugs as a mother was reunited with her missing 17-year-old daughter after their townhouse burned to the ground.

Monday's fire destroyed two townhouses and damaged four others, causing $325,000 in damage, said Clark County Fire Department Capt. Larry Dau.

A cat in one townhouse perished in the 11:21 a.m. blaze at the Forest Hills gated community, at East Viking and Sandhill roads near Chaparral High School.

A combination of winds, a natural gas line and shake roofs on the 15-year-old buildings helped fuel the flames that took firefighters an hour to extinguish, officials said. The single-story townhomes each had 2,350 square feet of living space.

Julia Hoven and her daughter, Lindsey, lost everything, including a 1996 Honda that was destroyed. The Hovens had no renter's insurance, Red Cross spokeswoman Betty Larimer said. The Red Cross was providing temporary housing for the Hovens and the other families that lost their homes, Larimer said.

A cigarette butt in an ashtray that the teenager tossed into a trash can in the garage set off the two-alarm blaze, Dau said. He ruled it accidental.

Lindsey Hoven called her mother at work to tell her about the fire, said a co-worker of Julia Hoven's who asked not to be named. The co-worker said he drove Julia Hoven to the fire. For nearly an hour the mother couldn't locate her daughter.

As Clark County Fire Department crews fought the blaze, fire officials had to hold back Julia Hoven as she cried out for her missing daughter.

"She's still in there," Julie Hoven said as she tried to run to her townhouse.

But two officials held her back. She sat down on a curb, put her head in her hands and cried.

"Ma'am, stay here. We'll find her," a firefighter told her.

And they did.

The daughter ran into her mother's arms after firefighters escorted the teen out of the complex. It wasn't clear where the girl was.

Lindsey Hoven suffered first-degree burns to her legs and foot and was taken by ambulance to Desert Springs Hospital. She was later released.

Dorothy Ratliff, 86, was in her garage when she saw the flames next door.

"It was absolutely in flames," Ratliff said. "It was all red. There was no smoke or anything. No one was here. Just the fire."

Ratliff said she was so shaken up that she couldn't remember how to call 911.

"The only number I could remember was my son's," she said.

Her son, Ronald Ratliff, who lives in the same complex, said: "The fire just missed her."