From left, residents Helen Miller, Sheilla Robbins and Robert Hicks are shown at the Van’s Trailer Oasis mobile home park on Las Vegas Boulevard North near Lamb Boulevard.
Saturday, June 16, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Mobile home fire follow-up
KSNV follow-up of a mobile home fire that killed three children Saturday, June 16, 2012.
Mobile home fire takes lives of three toddlers
KSNV reports that a fire at the Van's Trailer Oasis in Las Vegas Boulevard North took the lives of three sleeping children under the age of 3 years old on June 15.
Charred hulls of two mobile homes can be seen from Las Vegas Boulevard North, where a morning fire Friday, June 15, 2012, killed three children, all under the age of 3.
It all happened so fast.
Robert Hicks said he heard the fire trucks first, as they turned into Van’s Trailer Oasis mobile home park on Las Vegas Boulevard North where he lives. He said he looked outside and saw smoke rising from Lot 31. That’s when he sprinted toward the home.
He knew the home's residents well.
“We heard the firetruck and I said, ‘Oh, that’s 31,’ and I ran down there,” Hicks said. “I said, ‘Get the kids! Get the kids!’”
He and his wife, Sheilla Robbins, used to live at Lot 31 with the current residents — a family of five: two parents and their three toddlers — not more than a week prior. The Clark County Coroner's Office identified the toddlers as David Gouailhardou, 2, Skylar Lafia, 2, and Aryana Lafia, 1.
Robbins and Hicks said they were excellent kids, and their eyes filled with tears as they talked about the children. David, or Dede as they called him, had red hair and little freckles. Skylar and Aryana, or Nene as they called her, both had curly blond hair and blue eyes.
Hicks said that when he arrived at the house, he noticed the kids were still inside. The front entrance was already too hot to go near, so he sprinted toward the back window. There, he said, he tried to reach in to help them.
“I heard the boy or girl whimper and cry, ‘Help,’” Hicks said. “But I couldn’t grab them.”
Russell Cameron, a deputy fire chief with the Clark County Fire Department, said the parents also attempted to rescue the children.
Then the flames started to engulf the home, Robbins said. Fifty-five firefighters battled the fire, but it was too late. The children were lost.
“It was to the point where we started going around getting neighbors out of their houses because we thought it was going to blow,” Robbins said.
Robbins and Hicks said they lost their clothes and family photos in there as well because they hadn’t finished moving them into their new mobile home yet.
All that remains from the fire are a charred structure, heavy hearts and the pink blisters on the tips of Hicks’ burnt fingers.
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