Funeral held for children in Pahrump fire

PAHRUMP -- What can you say about the lives of three children who were given so little time to live?

Brandon, 5, and his brother, Zach, 4, liked the things most boys their age like, namely cars and bugs and playing in the dirt. Their 18-month-old brother, Elliot, liked games and goofy looks and other things that would turn him into what his cousin described as "a giggle monster."

They were too young for anyone to really know what sort of grown-ups they might have turned out to be. Too young to fully understand what it means to be dead.

They were clever and funny and full of energy.

They loved their grandparents and their two big sisters. They loved their mom and dad.

So it went on Wednesday, as about 200 people gathered at the new Mormon chapel in Pahrump, 60 miles west of Las Vegas, to remember the three boys and try to make some sense of something that makes none. Brandon Michael Smith, Zachary Randall Broadhead and Elliot Chad Broadhead died together in a Feb. 9 fire at their home in Pahrump, and they were buried together in the same casket following Wednesday's service.

Father to the boys, Anthony Broadhead, grandfather, Chad Broadhead, and six of their uncles carried the casket into the chapel. The boys' mother, Sharon Broadhead, followed them.

The mourners included dozens more family members and friends, as well as the principal and several teachers from the Pahrump elementary school where Brandon attended kindergarten.

"These are all-American boys. They were just boys through and through," said Russ Meads, a friend of the Broadheads who shared the family's recollections of the children.

One cousin remembered Zachary as a wild man.

"When they lived in their two-story house, Zach fell down the stairs and said he wanted to do that again," Meads said.

Zach was especially fond of "anything with wheels." He would spend hours "playing with his cars and trucks in the dirt," Meads said.

He also was fond of horses and "any other animal he could get his hands on," Meads said.

Brandon was quiet by comparison, but a cousin recalled how "when he laughed he sounded like he was crazy," Meads said.

Brandon, Anthony Broadhead's stepson, also was known to dance and sing his favorite songs at the top of his lungs. He had a large vocabulary and enjoyed puzzling over his school work with his grandmother, Meads said.

Elliot was a good-natured boy with big, blue eyes that would light up when he spotted someone he knew. Reading from the boy's obituary, his great-uncle Trent Broadhead described the toddler as a "joyful baby with long eyelashes and a bright smile."

"He was very affectionate, and he loved to be held and cuddled," Trent Broadhead said. "He adored his parents."

All three boys spent a lot of time with their grandparents, cousins and other family members, but their mom and dad were the two most important people in the world to them, Meads said.

"They'd have sleepovers, and they would just pop up and say 'I think my mommy and daddy need me,' when they were ready to go home," Meads said of Brandon and Zach. "It's every kid's dream to be able to be in a family that loved them like this family."

The two older boys also dreamed of racing.

Brandon and Zach loved to watch the battered cars spit dirt at the track their Grandpa Chad runs in Pahrump.

As babies, the two would fall asleep to the roar of race cars driving by. When they were older, they couldn't wait to hang out in the garage or at the track.

"They loved the loud sounds and the fast cars," Meads said. And they both favored the same driver over all the rest. "Their dad. He was the bestest race car driver of all time, and he always won in their eyes," Meads said.

Life is a lot like the sport the boys loved so much, he said: Everyone starts out on the track together, but they don't all finish the race at the same time.

Brandon, Zach and Elliot "took the checkered flag a little before everyone else," Meads said, but that's no reason for everyone else to quit driving.

He urged those in the audience to "come out of turn four and hold strong til the very end so that someday we might spend time together again with these boys."

After Meads spoke, mourners sniffed and dabbed their eyes as the song "Watching You" by Rodney Atkins was played in the chapel. It's a country ballad about a 4-year-old boy learning about life by studying his father.

Neither parent spoke.

Sharon Broadhead was the only person to escape from the burning mobile home alive. Family friend Crystal Smiley, 24, also died in the fire. Her visitation will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. today at Pahrump Family Mortuary, with a funeral service at 2 p.m. Friday at Pahrump Community Church, 1061 E. Wilson Road.

The blaze is still under investigation, but fire officials believe it was sparked accidentally by one of the boys playing with a lighter or other "open flame source."

Three days after the fire, the Nye County Sheriff's Office arrested Sharon Broadhead and booked her on multiple counts of child neglect and involuntary manslaughter.

A Pahrump judge released her Monday. She has not been formally charged with a crime.

After Wednesday's hour-long service, the boys' casket was loaded into a hearse and escorted to a small cemetery about four miles away by a funeral procession dozens of vehicles long.

A spokeswoman for the mortuary said the family wanted the boys to stay together, even in death.

A steady wind from the south blew tumbleweeds into the road and filled the sky with dark clouds, but the short graveside service was finished before the rain could start.

Pahrump Valley Times writer Selwyn H. Harris contributed to this report. Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.