A pre-school child died when a fire tore through a mobile home Wednesday night and left a large extended family homeless, according to the Anchorage Fire Department.
The fire apparently started on a mattress in the back bedroom of the home on Bern Street west of Lake Otis Parkway and south of Dowling Road, said Fire Department spokesman Tom Kempton. It was reported about 5:30 p.m.
The 4-year-old boy, along with a teenage boy who was slightly injured, was in the room where the fire started, he said.
The dead boy's grandfather saw the fire and tried to put it out, along with some other family members, he said. The man was able to get out before the flames got too intense, Kempton said. The grandfather said the child was still in the room, Kempton said.
His body was found just before 8 p.m., Kempton said.
The teenager who tried to help other children escape through a window cut his hand and was getting stitches at a hospital, police said.
"He managed to exit the area through a window and was apparently successful at taking at least one other child with him," Kempton said. "A lot of the adults that were here tried to do everything they could."
Police Sgt. Lee Rohwer, who was among the first on the scene, said flames were fanning up nearly 30 feet into the air as responders arrived and found about a half dozen family members standing outside. They told rescuers the child was still inside the mobile home.
"The home was completely engulfed," Rohwer said. "There was no way anyone was going back in. This is about as bad as it gets."
Police evacuated some neighboring homes for fear the blaze would spread, he said. A mobile home next door suffered some smoke damage and had a window blown out because of the heat, but no one there was injured, Rohwer said.
At least a dozen people from an extended family appeared to be living in the mobile home, Kempton said. None was identified Wednesday. Kelly Hurd, spokeswoman for the Alaska Red Cross, said 14 people were displaced in the fire and lost everything.
"The Red Cross put the whole family up in a hotel for three nights," she said. "Obviously, it's a very traumatic situation."
Her organization was also planning to help with food, clothing and other essentials, she said.
Before the child was found, some family members waited for word about him in a nearby mobile home up the street, but they did not want to discuss the fire.
The names of the family and the child were not immediately released by authorities, but David Bybee, 61, who identified himself as the boy's other grandfather, said the boy's name was Matthew Graham.
As he watched firefighters battle the blazing home early on, Bybee said the family was holding out hope Matthew would somehow be found all right.
"He was in the house, but they don't know where he's at (now)," he said. The boy was known to climb out windows in the home by himself, Bybee said.
Bybee said he had gotten a call about the fire and came over soon after it was reported. Matthew was visiting his father at the home, Bybee said. By 8:30 p.m., firefighters were still working to extinguish hot spots that continued to smolder. They expected to be working on the wreckage for most of the night, Kempton said.
The cause of the fire remains unclear and fire investigators will investigate, Kempton said. Smoke detectors in the mobile home reportedly did not work, he said.
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
By JAMES HALPIN
Anchorage Daily News