Thursday, March 11, 2004 | 11:09 a.m.
A 12-year-old girl died this morning in a mobile home fire in a downtown neighborhood on a property that residents say is plagued by electrical problems and junk.
The fire started shortly before 3:30 a.m. in a mobile home in the back yard of a house in the 1600 block of East Ogden Avenue near Fremont and Bruce streets.
The girl was home alone when the fire started, Las Vegas Fire and Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said.
Her mother told fire officials that she and her boyfriend had left shortly before the fire started to buy some eggs and milk for breakfast, Szymanski said. When the mother returned home she found firefighters battling the blaze and told them her daughter was inside.
"She was extremely distraught," Szymanski said. When asked, he said he didn't see the mother with groceries.
The girl was found still in bed. She was probably overcome by smoke and gasses and died before the flames reached her back bedroom, Szymanski said. Her name was not released this morning.
The girl's mother told fire authorities she had been having problems with the electricity in the mobile home. Fire investigators are looking at that as a possible cause.
"She said the circuit breaker kept kicking out and they had to keep resetting it," Szymanski said.
Investigators had not found any smoke detectors in the home this morning but were still combing through the debris. The trailer was completely destroyed, Szymanski said.
Residents of the neighborhood said they wouldn't be surprised if the fire was found to be electrical.
Along with the mobile home, a guest house described by neighbors as a shack is also in the back yard of the property a few feet from the mobile home.
Scott McCormick, who used to live in the guest house but now lives in a house next door, arrived home about 8 a.m. to find his neighbor's house surrounded by yellow police tape.
He asked fire authorities what happened and then said, "I bet it was electrical. The electrical wiring is horrible.
"(When I lived in the guest house) I plugged in a lamp and the whole circuit blew out."
The guest house was in disrepair, neighbors said. The owner had nailed plywood to the roof and affixed palm fronds to it.
"It was all rigged up," said Mike Hall, who has lived in the neighborhood for 26 years.
A fence in the yard where the fire occurred caught fire two years ago, Hall said.
He said he had hoped that the prior fire would send a message to the property's owner to clean up the yard which was cluttered with abandoned refrigerators, washers and dryers.
Hall had complained to the city about the mess because it seemed unsafe. A city spokeswoman said a complaint was filed in January 2003 about trash and debris in the yard and the yard was cleaned up after that, she said.
The owner did remove some of the debris, Hall said, but instead of fully clearing out the junk, he parked a white van on the side of the house and tacked up pieces of wood on a fence to hide the yard from view.
When Hall complained again, but the city "said we can't see it from the street so we can't do anything about it," Hall said.
The Clark County Assessors office records show the property is owned by a family trust in West Covina, Calif.
Denise Booher, who lives on 17th Street, around the corner from the fire property, said "as long as the landlord is in California he doesn't have to deal with it."
Two computers have been "fried" because of electrical surges in the house she rents, Booher said.
"This neighborhood is so old. It's dangerous," she said. "I'm ready to move but nobody in my family wants to."
The homes in that area were built in 1943, according to assessor records.
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