Firefighters give sister ashes of man who died in trash bin

At least Wayne Green is home for the holidays.

At least he'll "never be cold again, never hungry again," said his sister, Betty Green.

It's the happiest ending she now can hope for, under the circumstances.

Wayne, 62, died in early December from injuries he sustained in a trash bin fire behind a North Las Vegas business on Thanksgiving night. Firefighters found Wayne engulfed in flames. The fire is still under investigation.

Betty, who lives in Jacksonville, Fla., learned about Wayne's homelessness the same time she learned about his death.

"He was just poor, just sleeping, you know?" she said tearfully. "And then to have it happen Thanksgiving night, it just kills me. I was home safe and warm."

Betty had no idea how bad things had gotten for her big brother, a U.S. Navy veteran who, last she knew, worked as a house painter.

She hadn't seen Wayne since the early 1980s and hadn't heard from him since Christmas Eve a few years ago. Back then, he said every­thing was fine.

"If he had just let someone know, we could have changed it," Betty said.

Their father wanted to come to Las Vegas to search for Wayne, who moved to the valley at least a decade ago. But he was too ill to travel. He died earlier this year. Their mother died in 2010. Betty didn't know how to find Wayne to tell him about their parents' deaths.

"Even if you were standing there, where would you look?"

As she struggled with the news of her brother's brutal death, Betty, a customer service representative, also knew she couldn't immediately afford to pay for his cremation and bring him home so his ashes could be placed near the mausoleum where their parents were laid to rest.

The firefighters stepped in.

"We asked her if she would like to have Wayne home by Christmas," said Kevin Brame, North Las Vegas deputy fire chief.

Moved by Wayne's story, firefighters chipped in to pay for Wayne's cremation. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines offered two free tickets for firefighters to escort his ashes home to Florida. They delivered them to Betty on Tuesday.

"It's an American tragedy that anybody in this country lives behind a Dumpster," Brame said. "We needed to step up. This occurred in our city. This was one of our citizens. We were trying to provide him with a little honor and dignity."

Betty was stunned by the firefighters' actions.

"They didn't owe me a dime," she said. "I can't understand why they would be so compassionate and caring."

She also learned that Wayne sometimes visited a North Las Vegas fire station in the mornings and was friendly with some of the firefighters.

"I'm so grateful they treated him like a human being," she said.

She believes Wayne probably suffered like so many during the downturn in the economy in recent years. Maybe he was too embarrassed to ask for help.

"If you're in trouble like that, you need to call your family or someone," Betty said.

Wayne was a giving person who would "probably do anything for you he could," she said.

But "he wasn't cynical enough. He was a little gullible sometimes. He was always thinking he was onto something great, and it didn't turn out."

At least Wayne is home now, she said.

He's "close to Mom and Dad, in a nice little spot overlooking a pond with lots of ducks."

Betty said she feels for other families who don't know the whereabouts of loved ones this holiday season, who don't have any answers.

"I've got answers, but they'll break your heart."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at
lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.