Neighbors say east Las Vegas fire victims were left bound, bloody in burning home

Neighbors of an east Las Vegas home that burned Monday said they found some occupants bound and bleeding as the flames rapidly consumed the small, one-story house at 52 Sherrill Circle.

Las Vegas police are saying little about the circumstances of the incident, which left one person dead and four others in critical condition with burns and other wounds. Neighbors said one of the residents of the home, a young girl, was not injured.

Several neighbors said they suspect some occupants of the house have ties to drug trafficking. Police declined comment on that, or accounts of witnesses who said some of the the people rescued from the burning home were bound and at least one had been stabbed. None of the victims were identified Monday.

Fire units and Metro were called to the house, near the intersection of Lamb Boulevard and Charleston Boulevard, at 12:22 p.m., according to the Las Vegas Fire Department. By then the house was fully engulfed in flames, the fire department said, though the fire was out by 1 p.m.

Jocelin Henriquez, a 16-year-old who lives close by, said the smoke was so bad she had to lift her shirt above her mouth to breathe. She saw two people being carried out on stretchers, covered in blankets, as police stormed the area.

"I saw the cops running out with their guns," Henriquez said, holding both arms out past her shoulders to show how big the weapons were. "It was crazy."

The first firefighters to arrive on Sherrill Circle found one person with lacerations and burns "walking down the street bleeding," the department said Monday evening. The person, whose age and gender were not immediately available, told firefighters there were more people trapped in the house.

"We didn't know what we were walking into," fire department spokesman Tim Szymanski said about calling Metro for support. "It was a very involved incident."

Two people were lying on the front lawn next door to the home with severe burns, Szymanski said. Fire crews believe the fourth person, who suffered smoke inhalation, was attempting to rescue the victims and was overcome by smoke. All were listed in critical condition at the University Medical Center Monday night.

A man who lives a few houses down from the fire and who asked not to be identified said he saw the blaze and ran to help before firefighters arrived.

"I saw a crowd just starting to form," he said. "When I noticed (the fire) I took off running."

Two other men joined him — one ending up in the hospital, overcome by smoke.

The man said he helped an injured, older man who was already out of the house escape flames shooting from a window. Realizing he could not enter the home from the front, which was already engulfed in flames, he ran around back. That's where he said he found one woman just inside, covered in blood and bound, who he helped out. He could hear others inside but could not get to them.

"It's all I could do," he said. "The house was blazing."

Twenty-two pieces of fire equipment and 66 fire personnel responded to the blaze, Szymanski said. All told, more than 100 emergency personnel responded to the scene, he said.

Police and fire department officials did not provide details, including the cause or origin of the fire. Any time there is a fatal fire — which doesn't mean the fire caused the death, Szymanski emphasized — the fire department, police department and coroner's office have to conduct a collaborative investigation, he said.

At around 8 p.m., as the last fire truck packed up and readied to leave the scene, Robert Moccia of Stansberry Construction patiently waited to begin boarding the home up.

"They incinerated that house," the 52-year-old said, staring inside. Windows and doorways — "they're all gone," he said.

Review-Journal reporters Colton Lochhead, Ricardo Torres and Kimber Laux contributed to this story.

Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Find her on Twitter: @rachelacrosby