Mom tells of attempt to save kids

Keith Paul

Wednesday, March 8, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

Helen Williams stood in the hallway screaming her three children's names as the heat from the flames kept her from getting to them.

Fire was eating away at her apartment as she yelled to her kids, but she never heard them answer.

Finally, with fire all around her and choking on smoke, Williams said she did the hardest thing she could ever do -- she escaped her apartment without her children.

"I couldn't get to my kids. I couldn't get to my kids," said Williams, as tears welled up in her eyes. "I tried. I tried so hard, but I couldn't get to them."

Inside the second-floor apartment at Cedar Springs, 4-year-old Ledeana Williams, 3-year-old Jae Williams and 2-year-old Eric Williams III died in Tuesday's 7 a.m. blaze that engulfed the eight-unit building.

Their bodies were found about 40 minutes after the fire started.

The fire also killed wheelchair-bound Sam Kloner, 73, who was unable to escape his downstairs apartment. Clark County firefighters discovered his body about 8 a.m.

Thirty-six other residents were able to escape uninjured from Building No. 45 at the Cedar Springs Apartments, 1750 E. Karen Ave., near Maryland Parkway and Sahara Avenue.

Fire investigators spent all day Tuesday going over the destroyed apartment building trying to determine what caused the deadly blaze, but they have not determined how the fire started or in which apartment it started, said Bob Leinbach, Clark County Fire Department spokesman.

Josie, the department's arson-detection dog, did not sniff out any evidence Tuesday afternoon that flammable liquids were used to start the fire, officials said.

Investigators returned to the burned-out building today to continue the investigation of the fire that led to about $500,000 in damages.

It was the city's deadliest blaze since eight people died in the 1981 Las Vegas Hilton fire.

The displaced residents were put into empty apartments in the complex, but Williams went to her sister-in-law Yolanda Feliciano's home to be surrounded by family and friends.

"She would have died had she stayed in that apartment any longer," Feliciano said. "She would have done anything to save her kids."

Sitting in her sister-in-law's home, Williams recounted Tuesday night how she was asleep on the couch in her apartment and woke up after hearing one of her windows shattering because of the fire. The flames and smoke were taking over her apartment.

Her children were in their beds, down a hallway that was blocked by fire and smoke.

"I couldn't even see," Williams said. "It just went down so fast, way too fast."

Feliciano looked over to Williams, who was wiping tears away with her hand, which was still stained black with soot and still smelling like smoke hours after the fire.

Williams sat up on the couch a little as she started describing her young children. There was Ledeana, the actress. She always liked to have her picture taken.

The middle child, Jae, was the quiet one. The one that you may not even know was in the room.

Then there was Eric, named after his father, with a deep voice and always finding ways to cause trouble.

Williams then clenched her hand so tightly her knuckles started turning white.

Feliciano looked over at her. "She's lost so much. Her husband, my brother, died" Sept. 22, 1997.

Williams was six months pregnant with Eric when her husband, Eric Williams Jr., died from diabetes. Feliciano said her brother had one request before he died.

"He said 'Keep my kids together. Do whatever you have to, but make sure they stay together,' " she said. "We always wanted the kids to have the best because they were losing their father."

The kids often stayed with Feliciano and her husband. They were supposed to come over this Thursday and Friday to see their aunt. Instead, Feliciano has to make arrangements for their funeral.

The tragedy Tuesday stirred memories in the community of the fiery deaths of other young children recently.

It was little more than a year ago when three children died in a fire that raged through a mobile home Feb. 9, 1999, in the 5000 block of East Lake Mead Boulevard. The children were ages 2, 4 and 5.

In December a 5-month-old girl died in a mobile home fire in Sandy Valley, a town of 3,500 about 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

Williams knows how the mothers of those children feel. She thought she had done what she was supposed to by replacing the batteries in her apartment's smoke detector. But she said it never went off.

"My babies. My babies," Williams said staring at the carpet. "All three babies are gone."

Keith Paul covers crime and public safety for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4057 or by e-mail at keith@lasvegassun.com.