Neighbors fought to save two who died in mobile home fire

Just after sunrise on Christmas, neighbors at the Miracle Mile Mobile Home Park in the southeast valley awoke to the smell of smoke and a startling popping sound.

"I thought somebody was celebrating Christmas morning," Francisco Fabian said Tuesday. "It sounded like fireworks. I came out after I heard the sirens."

What Fabian saw was a mobile home engulfed in fire-caused smoke and two other neighbors armed with a hammer, a shovel and a fearless determination, smashing windows and pounding at the walls and doors.

They could not break in. They could not save the man and woman inside, a couple neighbors said were in their early 20s. They died in their bed, burned beyond recognition, leaving a family of mourners screaming in grief.

The mother of the man, whose name wasn't released, had to be physically restrained when she arrived to check on why her son hadn't come over Christmas morning as planned, neighbors said. Hours later, a tearful male relative pounded his fists on the damaged mobile home and kicked it until family members grabbed him in a hug.

"I tried everything in the world to get in there," said Bob Edgar, the 71-year-old neighbor who used a hammer and shovel to try to break down a door or poke a hole into the trailer to get in. "I beat the hell out of that door. The doorknob fell off. There was just no chance. These trailers, they get old, and they just go up."

"I never heard them inside," Edgar added. "They probably never woke up. It's just heartbreaking."

Edgar abandoned the shovel on the ground as firefighters arrived at 7:07 a.m., six minutes after the 911 call came in from Frankie Mendez, who dialed the emergency number on his cellphone after his wife reported smelling smoke. Mendez pounded on Edgar's door to wake him up to finish the 911 call.

Neither Mendez nor Edgar said they knew the couple well because the young man and woman had lived in the single-wide mobile home about four months only. They exchanged pleasant hellos as neighbors do.

"They just got married. They were newlyweds," Edgar said, although that could not be confirmed. "They were good neighbors. They were just good, quiet people. This is a sad, sad day."

Fabian and his wife, Anna Cavildo, said the two were very happy. The man, who worked in the health care field and often wore scrubs, had told them he was about to graduate and had just won a new hospital job.

Fabian and Cavildo, who have lived in the mobile home park for about one year, said there had been at least four fires in recent years, including another involving a fatality. They said the mobile homes are old - theirs was built in 1979 - and the heating systems don't work well, so people often use dangerous space heaters.

"I'm always afraid," Cavildo said, adding she doesn't want to use their space heater any more. "I told my daughter never to use the stove when I'm not home. And we turn off the Christmas lights."

The couple have two children, ages 8 and 11, who opened presents Tuesday morning after the fire, but remained subdued and indoors throughout the day.

"The children can't enjoy the presents," Fabian said.

Near the fire-damaged mobile home, neighbors huddled in groups, mourning the couple.

Water from the firetrucks trickled down the gutter like tears across a face.

"I told my husband this water probably has a part of them in it," said Cavildo. "Oh, it makes me sad."

It took firefighters only 15 minutes to extinguish the fire, which was focused in the area of the master bedroom at the rear and under the mobile home, according to the Clark County Fire Department.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy confirmed that two people died in mobile home at the park at 3642 Boulder Highway near Sahara Avenue. He said the two victims were adults, but investigators had not identified them.

Both victims were "burned beyond facial recognition," he said.

The mobile home, which is about 40 years old, suffered heavy damage, but no estimate was available.

Review-Journal reporter Jeff German contributed to this story. Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow her on Twitter @lmyerlvrj.