Fire kills three children, destroys two mobile homes

Dino Cerasoli sprinted toward the smoke and grabbed a garden hose.

Despite the flames, he was determined to get inside that mobile home.

But soon the rising heat and melted siding made him realize that the growing inferno outmatched his garden hose, he recounted hours later from his seat at a video slot machine at the nearby Hitchin' Post Saloon and Steakhouse.

"I just wanted to get them kids out of there," he said, hitting the buttons, spinning the reels, losing himself in the game. "There was too much fire and smoke by then. Otherwise I would have been in there, believe me."

Three children inside the mobile home died in the Friday fire that began about 10:20 a.m. at Van's Trailer Oasis, 3610 Las Vegas Blvd. North, near Lamb Boulevard.

By the time firefighters from Clark County, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas had extinguished the flames, two mobile homes were destroyed, and the children, all under age 3, were dead, Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Russell Cameron said.

The children and two adults were sleeping in their home when the fire started, Cameron said. The adults escaped the blaze and, with several neighbors and a Clark County park police officer, tried to rescue the children inside, he said.

Miranda Biddle, 12, was walking home when she saw the roof of her uncle's mobile home engulfed in flames and his girlfriend yelling for help.

"Everybody was trying to get the babies out, but the babies all burnt up," she said of her cousins: two boys who were about 2 and 2½ years old and a girl, 1½ years old.

"She was so beautiful," Miranda said. "She could talk to you all day."

Friends and neighbors identified the adults as Shane and Amy, a live-in couple in their mid-20s who had been dating about six months. She had two children from a previous relationship; he had one. They are Las Vegas natives who had lived in the park about four months.

They were taken to University Medical Center with minor injuries.

Darlene Jones, the grandmother of one of the boys, said Shane was working at a swap meet to provide for his family. Her daughter was the mother of Shane's son, David.

"He was doing his hardest. He was a good daddy," she said.

She said his last name was Gouharaildou, but no public records could be found under that name.

Jones said she had no concerns about David, who was turning 3 in August, living with Shane and Amy.

Now she and her daughter are making funeral plans and hoping for answers from the investigation.

"I just have to pray that they were asphyxiated by the smoke before the flames got to them," Jones said.

Because of the fatalities, county fire investigators and Las Vegas homicide detectives were conducting a joint investigation of the fire's cause. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was assisting.

Terry Gardner also wants answers. His mobile home next door was destroyed in the fire, and he lost everything except his truck and the clothes on his back.

That included expensive music recording equipment, such as a $600 microphone, he had collected during his days as a guitarist for acts including Eddie Rabbitt and Willie Nelson, he said. He had no insurance.

"I lost everything I own in one day, in one hour," the 55-year-old sign painter said.

He lost his home to foreclosure a couple years ago and moved into the trailer park. Work had been slow but was picking up, he said.

"I see things coming around again, but now I get to start from square one," he said.

Back at the Hitchin' Post saloon, Cerasoli, a park maintenance man, said he believes the fire started in the kitchen of the children's trailer. That is where he saw the flames as he ran toward the home.

His daughter was friends with Amy, whose kids would often come to his mobile home to play.

After abandoning the rescue effort, Cerasoli returned to his home and waited with a "hysterical" Amy until firefighters and police arrived.

The first officers on scene were "jerks," he said, "threatening her like she did it on purpose. She didn't do it on purpose. They were barking up the wrong tree on that one. She's a good mom."

Pam Terrell, who described herself as a "second mom" to Amy, concurred.

"They didn't do it on purpose," Terrell said. "They loved their kids."

They always had someone at home to watch the children, she said.

Despite their defense of the parents, Cerasoli and Terrell each second-guessed their efforts to save themselves but not their children.

"I don't know how they left that trailer without them babies," Cerasoli said. "That would have been the first thing I did."

Review-Journal reporter Lawrence Mower contributed to this report. Contact Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281. Contact Kyle Potter at kpotter@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0391.