9-yr-old dies in house fire in TX
December 30, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
9-year-old Nicholas Benavides died Monday morning in a fire at his house in Corpus Christi, Texas, today’s Caller Times reports. Nicholas was autistic and, according to his grandmother, Maria Benavides, was “’shy, but also friendly and always smiling.’”
On Monday, Nicholas’ siblings, ages 11 and 4, were at their maternal grandparents’ home and Nicholas’ mother was at work. Benavides said her son, the boy’s father, told her he was doing laundry in a room at the rear of the house.
Fire Chief Richard Hooks said it hasn’t been determined if the boy was alone in the house. Fire officials were interviewing the boy’s father late Monday.
When Corpus Christi firefighters arrived at 10:37 a.m., about five minutes after the initial call, the front part of the house was engulfed in flames and a neighbor was trying to get inside, Hooks said.
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Firefighters found the unresponsive boy inside the home about 10:45 a.m. Firefighters began CPR on the boy who was taken to Driscoll Children’s Hospital, suffering from serious burns and smoke inhalation. He was pronounced dead at 11:17 a.m., Hooks said.
Nicholas was a fourth-grader who, the Caller Times notes, loved to ride his bike and play in the yard of his house.
how sad and it does sound a little suspicious
This is a tragedy that hits close to home – literally, since I live a few miles away. There are too many questions still in the air at this point (like why the hell did they still have hurricane shutters up?). Too soon to understand all the events, but I’ll monitor closely. I wish his family the best.
Just some more on the story, as well as community fundraising on the family’s behalf.
I think I’ll leave speculation on causes to the fire, law enforcement and medical authorities.
This is very sad. Nicholas sounded like a sweet kid.