Children still critical after apartment fire

Thursday, Dec. 10, 1998 | 11:18 a.m.

Two children remained in critical condition today at UMC's Pediatric Unit after being pulled from a second-story smoke-filled apartment Wednesday morning.

City of Las Vegas firefighters were continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze this morning.

When officials responded to the 7:18 a.m. call at Sunpoint Apartments, 2860 S. Decatur Blvd., a 5-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl were still in the apartment.

Firefighters at first were unaware children were in the apartment.

"The first calls we got, multiple calls, were that an apartment was on fire," said department spokesman Tim Szymanski.

He said neighbors who saw the flames coming from the apartment began knocking on doors to alert residents, but they also were not immediately aware of the children.

However, said Szymanski, when firefighters arrive on the scene of a fire they assume someone is trapped inside.

Three firefighters were at the entrance to the burning apartment ready to search for anyone who might be inside the front of the residence when someone in the crowd screamed there were children inside.

Szymanksi said a 14-year-old girl, the children's aunt, had escaped from the burning apartment and searched for a telephone to use. When she returned to the scene she yelled that two children were trapped in the apartment.

Clark County Fire Department Capt. Ed Beaman, county firefighter Scott Straily and Las Vegas City Fire Department firefighters Thomas Aragon went in after the children.

Witnesses told fire officials that heavy flames were blowing out of the front bedroom window of the apartment where the fire began.

Fire officials say the fire was accidental, but the children playing with matches may be the cause, said Szymanski.

As a firefighter crawled down a hallway near the bedroom, he heard a moan coming from a room where he found a 5-year-old boy lying on the floor. The 9-year-old girl was found in a closet of the bedroom.

Neither of the children had a pulse when they were taken to the hospital, said Bob Leinbach, a spokesman from the Clark County Fire Department.

Damage to the apartment is estimated at $50,000. The bedroom where the fire began was destroyed. The rest of the apartment suffered smoke and heat damage, fire officials say.

The apartment under the second-story residence received water damage. The six remaining apartments in the building were not damaged.

The children's 14-year-old aunt, who is the daughter of their grandmother, was sleeping on the sofa in the living room when the fire broke out. She awoke to heavy smoke at about 7:15 a.m. and went to a neighbor's apartment for help, fire officials said. She suffered smoke inhalation and was in the Pediatric Unit for observation.

Officials said the teenager was unable to get to the rear of the apartment to rescue the children because of the smoke and flames.

The children's grandmother also lives in the apartment, but had gone to work. The children were visiting.

Szymanski said the 14-year-old had a friend over for the night.

The friend left at 6:45 a.m., and the grandmother left shortly before 7 a.m. to go to work, according to the spokesman.

The city and county fire departments have a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing program, which will offer counseling to all firefighters who responded to the call.