Family reels, community supports after devastating mobile home fire

The residence, which the Martinez family consisting of mother Norma, father Amadeo, and 3 kids (Miguel, Allessandra, and Alan) had been renting for around 7 years, was unoccupied except for their one-year-old husky Violeta. Violeta sadly perished in the fire.

“It hurts very much. Violeta was a part of our family,” said Norma.

The Martinez family was sleeping before the accident but awoke to run to the store to grab some food for Violeta. It was an action that may very well have saved their lives.

Norma Martinez had tears running down her face when describing how things could have been different had the family not awoken.

“I feel very very strong nerves and trauma at the thought of my children not being at home and were not near the house. They would have been sleeping had they been there, it was night time. We had awoken to go to the store to get food, to get food for Violeta, and even now as the shock is changing and a short time passes, we feel tremendous trauma for the thought. What if my children had been home? What if we had been asleep?,” said Norma. “The loss for our Violeta still stings.”

Fire Chief Mike Maltaverne, who was on scene, detailed the response.

“The first crew got on scene in about 7 minutes from the time we were notified. And they did witness fire, pretty heavy fire coming from the front of the mobile home. And at the time, the fire was starting to impinge on a home just to the west,” said Maltaverne.

“Crews pulled some hose off the trucks and started spraying water and they were able to protect the home adjacent and then directed water on the building that was on fire and was able to knock that fire down pretty quickly,” said Maltaverne.

There was nothing that crews could do to save the life of the deceased animal.

“If there’s anything we can do, we’ll start to try to do some type of a resuscitative effort, even on pets. In this case, there was nothing we could do,” said Maltaverne.

Miguel Martinez rushed into a back door away from the fire before fire crews arrived to courageously and selflessly save Violeta, Miguel is healing from smoke damage to his lungs and is having some breathing difficulties as a result of the attempted heroism. “I took in a good amount of smoke.”

The family was able to find lodging to get them through the night and is being housed at Teton Valley Resort, albeit only temporarily.

Amadeo works for JB Construction, which is owned by the godparents of Amadeo and Norma’s children. Godparents hold a much more involved and serious role in latino cultures and they helped put the Martinez family up at Teton Valley Resort.

There is no disclosed cause of the fire yet, and an investigation is well underway.

“We don’t have any information yet,” said Maltaverne the morning after the fire. “Today we will be doing some interviews with the occupants and then combing through the scene ourselves and seeing if we can figure out what happened.”

Two engines, an ambulance, a battalion chief, chief Maltaverne, and five on-call firefighters responded to the fire. Teton County Sheriff’s Deputies also responded, evacuating people in adjacent structures.

Maltaverne said that fighting a fire in a mobile home, as opposed to a traditional single-family home, is more difficult due to the confined nature of the structure. Additionally, the density of flammable materials in a confined structure adds to the challenge.

“It’s pretty tight quarters in there,” said Maltaverne. “ It is very difficult. You’re hampered by zero visibility and high heat conditions which are less than desirable. When you get in there and there’s a lot of material and belongings, your furnishings and shelving and all the contents of that home have all been disrupted. Things are on fire and they’re falling on around you. When it’s confined like that and you’ve got two or three members trying to work in a small area, it’s hazardous. It’s very cumbersome and definitely challenging.”

Maltaverne was very grateful for the efforts of 911 dispatchers who were fielding a multitude of calls coming in.

“We had a really good effort from our 911 center. They were turning around and giving us good updates while we were responding. (We had) really good help from the county,” said Maltaverne.

Maltaverne stressed that individuals make sure their ducks are in a row considering fire safety in their homes.

“We would just encourage people to be fire safe in and around their homes if they’re using auxiliary methods to heat their home. Make sure you’ve got good clearances. If you’re burning wood, hopefully, you’ve had your chimney cleaned and maintained this fall,” said Maltaverne.

“I would also encourage people to have working smoke detectors in their home, that they check them at least every six months, and that they have good batteries in there. Make sure that (the) smoke detectors are outside of each sleeping area and that you talk about if you have a fire in your home, how would you get out of your home? Have that conversation with your family or the people you live with in advance,” said Maltaverne. “(Having an) evacuation plan and working smoke detectors can be the key to success.”

Maltaverne also said that this time of year the Fire Department sees an uptick in home fires due to the prevalence of external heating sources and prolonged cold periods.

“This is the time of the year when we start to see an uptick in home fires just because of the way people are heating their homes. It’s a difficult time when you’ve got these prolonged cold periods,” said Maltaverne.

The Martinez family was comforted and supported from the start by Teton County Fire.

“We felt comfort that the firemen were there to take out the fire and that they offered us places to stay in a hotel, and if we need to, we can go back and give us a place to stay that is safer,” said Amadeo.

The Teton Valley community has naturally been rallying to the Martinez family’s support, with a gofundme set up by family friends Martin Martinez and Arelia Hernandez. As of 1/23, there has been over $8,500 donated towards a $25,000 goal.

The Martinez family quickly received clothing and support from the community in their time of need, and are very grateful for the actions of those that donated, even if they didn’t know the family.

“We are happy that we are all together,” said Amadeo. “We are happy that tons of people were able to help us, no matter if they knew us or not. They showed their selflessness.”