Area Red Cross volunteers move quickly to help fire victims

By 8 a.m. Thursday, black smoke was pouring out the windows of a three-bedroom mobile home with a dirt front yard and a satellite dish bolted under the awning.

By 9 a.m., firefighters had done their jobs, the utilities had been shut off, a retired dental hygienist now volunteering with the Red Cross's Disaster Action Team was on the way, and seven people had been taken to the hospital. Three of them were toddlers.

By 10 a.m., Darren Bushnell had tucked a gift card from the Red Cross into his pocket and begun to formulate a plan. Once they were out of the hospital, he would put his wife, his children and his grandchildren in the Budget Suites for a week or two while he figured out how to repair his house, a rental near Carey Avenue and Christy Lane in east Las Vegas.

He would buy more diapers and some clothes and some food. In between working the overnight shift as a dispatcher for a towing company, he would learn how to clean the smell of smoke from the walls and the furniture. He would get things done.

By 11 a.m. Thursday, the heat was coming down hard and it all had begun to sink in. The Red Cross was gone, and so were the TV news vans. Bushnell had hopped into his minivan and run out for ice and bottled water, but he was home now. He sat on his porch to take a breath when his cellphone rang. He began to talk and was soon crying softly into the phone.

"My grandbaby," he said, "set my house on fire."

VOLUNTEERING TO HELP

Evelyn Chavers retired a decade ago after more than 30 years as a dental hygienist. She lives now in the Del Webb retirement community in Henderson. She enjoys living there, but wants to get out and do things, too.

She volunteers with her church and with the Red Cross. On Thursday, she had the day shift as team captain for one of the Red Cross's Disaster Action Teams. She enjoys helping people.

As is typical on days she is on call, she went to the Red Cross's head­quarters, near Flamingo Road and Spencer Street, to retrieve a response vehicle. It is a Hummer H3 -- donated of course -- and it is stocked with teddy bears and Mickey Mouse dolls, diapers, bottled water, blankets, clothing and forms that will need filling out.

These teams are all led by volunteers. There are 46 people who do this work, making up 23 teams. They take shifts. They respond to house fires and other emergencies during their shifts not long after emergency workers do.

They work very hard, all for no pay. So far this year, the local Red Cross says, they have provided more than $140,000 in assistance to families in need. That went to more than 900 people. There is no charge for the service. All of it is paid for through donations.

A TOUGH SITUATION

Bushnell is 44, tall and built like a guy who works hard for a living. He and his wife and their two teenage daughters live in the mobile home, along with his oldest daughter's three children, ages 3, 2 and 1. A 14-year-old family friend also was staying in the house Thursday morning.

They used to live in a house, but got kicked out two years ago when the bank foreclosed on the owner, he said. He's afraid he's going to get kicked out of this house now because of what happened.

He said his wife, Dee, was in a car accident a while back and hurt her neck bad. She can't work, and short-term disability is barely paying the bills. He had to take out a title loan on the minivan recently just to make the rent.

He said it was clear that one of the grandchildren got hold of a lighter and set the bed on fire. His daughter, 19-year-old Krystyna, the children's mother, was asleep in the bed at the time.

Stacey Welling, a Clark County spokeswoman, said investigators determined the cause of the fire was, indeed, a 3-year-old playing with a lighter.

A University Medical Center spokeswoman said Thursday afternoon that Krystyna was the only one left at the hospital. She was listed in good condition.

"You put baby locks on the cupboards and in a day and a half, they've figured it out," Bushnell said. He said the little children have become so adept at getting around the small mobile home that they have figured out how to climb the front of the washing machine using only the natural stickiness of their toes.

He was angry and he was upset when he talked about this. He alternated between shaking his head at the mystery of it all and crying at the tragedy.

the aftermath

Bushnell was arriving home from work not long after 8 a.m. Thursday when he saw fire trucks racing past, near Lake Mead and Nellis boulevards, just up the road from his place.

He had a bad feeling.

When he pulled up, the fire trucks were surrounding his house. His wife and the 3-year-old were sitting on the ground. His daughter and the youngest baby were in an ambulance.

Krystyna had been burned on her legs and feet, an injury fire officials said was minor. No one else was seriously burned, but everybody was suffering from smoke inhalation. Everybody went to the hospital.

Chavers showed up in her Red Cross Hummer, along with Vernita Lee, who was also volunteering Thursday. She was filling in for Chavers' usual partner, who is away helping flood victims in North Dakota.

Chavers began to ask Bushnell questions. How many people lived in the house? How old were they? How badly damaged was the house? What kind of help would they need?

"How can we help?" she said.

She filled out the paperwork. She did her calculations. Seven people, including three small children, would need food and clothes and somewhere to stay. The total assistance the Red Cross could provide was $1,055. That was to be used for clothing, food and shelter only, Chavers said.

This would not fix anything, of course. It would not remove the burned up bed or scrub the coffee-colored stains from the walls in the front bedroom. It would not pay the hospital bills or explain what happened to the landlord or fix the window that the firefighters had to break to get the hose inside.

But at least it would get the family through the next couple of days. That is what the Red Cross does.

"We can refer you to other agencies that can help out longer term," Chavers told Bushnell.

She said a caseworker would follow up later on to make sure everything was OK.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at
rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.