Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Woman, 76, dies in trailer fire in northeast LV

A neighbor saw 76-year-old Betty Cash pluck her Sunday newspaper off the driveway about 7:15 as she did every morning.

About 11 a.m. Tony Ciesinski said he heard shouts that the woman's northeast valley home was on fire, and he rushed outside with other neighbors.

"It was a ferocious fire," Ciesinski said. "The flames were blowing 30 or 40 feet out the windows."

Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said Cash died in the front bedroom of her trailer in the 6200 block of Mount McKinley Avenue, north of Lake Mead Boulevard.

Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

The Clark County Coroner's office said the family members have been informed but the coroner could not release Cash's name because a positive identification has not yet been made, the coroner's office stated today.

Fire investigators believe that the fire was accidental and started in the kitchen of the trailer, which was attached to a single-family home, Leinbach said. There did not appear to be any smoke detectors or fire alarms in the home.

The investigation is continuing until fire investigators determine whether Cash was alone at her home.

Neighbors said Cash had lived there alone about six years with a small dog with fuzzy golden fur and a cat. Late Sunday Ciesinski said someone had seen the cat in the backyard, but no sign of the dog.

"That dog stayed close to her," Ciesinski said, fearing the pet had been killed.

The fire roared through piles of newspapers, clothing and other items stacked at least a foot high throughout the home and trailer, Ciesinski said.

"She kept every little piece of paper," he said after he returned from boarding up the front door of her home.

Neighbors described her as a quiet woman who kept to herself.

"I knew her," William Goins said. "She was kind of a quiet person going up and down the street."

Most of the people in the neighborhood have lived in their homes since the 1960s and 1970s, Goins said.

John Cullison had just pulled into his driveway after returning from a trip to San Diego and saw the fire trucks and the police in his neighborhood.

"I talked to her over the mailbox," Cullison said.

"The neighbors said they heard her screaming," Cullison said. No one is sure whether she was cooking something or some other problem at the house caused the fire, he said.

"It's really a shame," Cullison said. "She was a nice, old lady."

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