Monday, March 15, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.
The state fire marshal and officials from Nye and Clark counties today were investigating a Saturday night trailer fire that killed two children in Pahrump and sent their mother to a Las Vegas hospital with smoke inhalation.
Detective Rick Huddleston of the Nye County Sheriff's Department said today a doctor from the Clark County coroner's office was expected to arrive this afternoon to perform autopsies on an 18-month-old boy and his 2 1/2-year-old sister.
He said the state fire marshal was on scene Sunday investigating the cause of the blaze.
"It was a very hot fire that started quick and rapidly went through the trailer," Huddleston said.
The fire broke out in the trailer that was parked in front of the home of relatives of the victims in the northwest part of town, about eight to 10 miles from the nearest Nye County Fire Department station.
"It was remarkable how fast the fire department got here -- about eight minutes -- from when we called 911," said a woman who lives across the street from the family of the victims. She spoke on condition that her name would not be published in the newspaper.
"This is such a terrible tragedy -- we don't often get things like this, especially multiple fire deaths, in Pahrump."
The woman said between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., her husband heard screams, opened the front door and saw smoke and flames coming from the trailer. He ran across the street and helped the grandfather of the dead children aim a garden hose on the fire.
"The fire was so hot that neither of them could get inside to save the children," the neighbor said. "The grandfather and grandmother singed the hairs on their arms and head and their eyebrows trying to get inside.
"The mother was yelling, 'My babies, my babies are gone!' I grabbed and hugged her 11-year-old daughter who was just standing there in shock. She had been sleeping in the house when the fire started."
The injured woman's 13-year-old child was in Alaska visiting friends, the neighbor said.
Huddleston said his department was not ready to release the names of the victims.
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