Monday, March 31, 2003 | 10:48 a.m.
No one was supposed to be home Friday morning at the Landeros house on Amber Crest Drive. Angel Landeros, a baker on the day shift at the Fiesta, was on vacation. His wife, Lucina, had planned to be at her youngest child's school that day, but canceled at the last minute. Their son, David, a Las Vegas High School freshman, was home sick for the first time the whole year.
Lucina Landeros says it was God's will that they were all there in the neighborhood off East Sahara Avenue east of Nellis Boulevard about 10 a.m., when a desperate knock and a cry for help came to their door. It was the aunt of her best friend and neighbor, Yamilet Bohorquez. A room was on fire in their house, and 5-year-old Gianni was locked inside.
Lucina ran the six feet between the front doors into the house, saw smoke coming from underneath the door, and ran back for help. The Landeroses' mother, father and 14-year-old son then rushed back to their friends' home to save the life of a child whose birthday they had celebrated just two weeks earlier.
The family worked together to recount the story Saturday, describing the part each played in saving Gianni, who escaped with critical injuries. When language failed the parents, who moved to Las Vegas from Mexico eight years ago, David and his 12-year-old sister, Maria, stepped in to translate for an English-speaking reporter. When words failed the children, the parents took over the narrative, demonstrating the rescue in their own house, which is a mirror image of the neighbors' home, using their 6-year-old daughter as a stand-in for the boy.
Father and son ran into the house and started working on the locked door. Smoke was coming from under the door and through the vents, Angel Landeros said. Meanwhile, his wife went to the room's window, at the rear of the house.
At the window, Lucina Landeros said, she turned her head and swung her hands to break the glass, knowing that if she looked, she would lose her nerve. When the glass shattered, smoke poured out, but she climbed into the room, thinking she would find Gianni quickly.
"It was all dark," she said. "I called 'Gianni,' but he did not answer."
She stepped blindly through the room, arms extended, hoping he was not in the bathroom, where the fire seemed to her to have started.
Outside the door Angel Landeros was ready to break down the door, but David managed to unlock it. David swung the door open and was stunned by the smoke filling the room. Angel, however, looked down and saw Gianni lying on the carpet inches from the open door. He reached in, swept the boy into his arms and carried him outside, to fresh air.
"I shook him and said 'Gianni, Gianni,' trying to revive him," Angel said. Once they reached fresh air, the boy opened his eyes, saw the teen, and said "Help me, David."
"Then I relaxed," Angel said. "I felt good because I heard him."
Lucina found her way through the smoke to safety -- she doesn't remember how -- and followed them outside.
David called 911, and paramedics arrived about 10:40 a.m. and took Gianni to University Medical Center, where he was in critical condition Sunday with second- and third-degree burns on 15 percent to 25 percent of his body, according to a UMC spokeswoman.
"It's a miracle that they made it out of the house," Yamilet Bohorquez said. "It's a miracle my baby is alive."
She and her husband, Leonel Magana, have been staying at the hospital. The Landeroses have been keeping their 2-year-old daughter and the aunt, Carmen, who cared for the children.
Medications are keeping Gianni asleep to help him with the pain.
Bohorquez disputes statements by the Clark County Fire Department that her son was playing with a candle. The smoke alarm was going off before the boy went into the room, she said. Her aunt, who lived with them, thought the cooking had set off the alarm, as it often did. After the boy had locked himself in the room, she saw that the smoke was coming from there, Bohorquez said.
"He is the smartest kid that could be," the mother said. "He is just the most amazing kid."
Lucina Landeros said she didn't think of the danger as she and her family tried to save Gianni. At the moment she entered the smoke-filled room, she said, all she could see were the eyes of her friend Yamilet and hear her voice saying, "You can do something for my son."
So many things could have happened differently that day to change the outcome, Lucina said. Angel had gone to run errands early instead of mid-morning, so he was home, sleeping to prepare for his second job, a graveyard shift at the Excalibur. Lucina had planned to be at the school so her youngest daughter could participate in the bike rodeo, but they couldn't find a helmet, so Lucina stayed home. David had never taken a sick day, but Friday he was too ill.
"It's God," Lucina said. "It's God."
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