Neighbors remember Lower Valley house fire victims
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Two people were killed Thursday night, April 18 during a house fire in El Paso’s Lower Valley.
El Paso Fire received a call about a Condition 2 fire shortly after 8 p.m. to a house fire located on Barton Street near North Carolina Drive. Fourteen units and two dozen firefighters responded to the scene, effectively knocking down the flames in 20 minutes without further injuries, according to an El Paso Fire spokesperson at the scene on Thursday night.
2 dead after house fire in El Paso’s Lower Valley
Our KTSM crews spoke with neighbors who said the people who were killed were an elderly married couple, who have lived there for many years.
“I haven’t felt this way since I lost my first patient years ago. It it hits you different. I’ve lost patients in the hospital and it’s fine because we have all the tools. We know that we did everything we could, but out here, I’m taking it very hard,” said Dashawn Watson, a neighbor who tried to help one of the people killed in the fire.
Watson said he worked at an emergency room for six years. He had never met the victims of Thursday night’s fire, but he tried saving the man who died from the flames, who he explained was laying down by the front door. At one point, he was even able to grasp his hands as the flames burst out of the windows and door, but he was unable to pull him out. He believes the woman who died was trapped further inside the house.
“They were a beautiful couple. They loved each other so much. He would always say he didn’t want to die and leave his wife alone,” said Nelly Ornelas, who told KTSM crews she was a close friend of the couple and often visited them.
“I went over to the house right now and almost broke down. I feel so sad that they won’t be there any longer. But they left together,” Ornelas said.
Ornelas said she visited the couple earlier in the day before the fire happened and spoke with the woman that died.
“It’s so strange. I couldn’t believe it. I could not sleep all night just wondering how this was possible. I spoke with her yesterday and she seemed fine, and now they’re gone,” Ornelas said.
She added that the couple couldn’t move around much as they were both very sick, and doesn’t believe the couple had any kids or other family members in the city, but has heard that family from Chihuahua are on their way.
“First, you have to figure out who lived there. And once we found out it was Mr. Nielson then it came closer to home because everybody knew him. Fifteen years, I’ve known this guy, a really nice guy that kept to himself and everything,” said neighbor Bobby Grayson.
Grayson said the couple had lived at an apartment further down the street years before, and that nowadays the man that died always had oxygen tank and frequently was picked up by ambulances for emergencies.
El Paso fire marshals and El Paso Police have been investigating the cause of the fire, and have yet to confirm the names of the people that were killed.
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