July 05--A 27-year-old man woke up just after 6 a.m. Friday to his dogs barking and men screaming for help just outside his mobile home at 4605 Hereford Road.
Samuel Morales said when he went outside, he saw a mobile home engulfed in flames and two men banging on the walls and crying.
"At that point, I figured it was too late because there was smoke coming out of all the windows like crazy," Morales said, as he cast a long gaze toward the charred home. "Just way too late."
An early morning structure fire killed three family members Friday morning and sent one more to the hospital with unknown injuries.
Sgt. Gary Duesler, spokesman for the Ector County Sheriff's Office, said Odessa Fire and Rescue crews responded to 4605 Hereford Road space 10 around 6:15 a.m. Two people who escaped the fire talked to deputies at the scene, Duesler said, and another person was transported to Medical Center Hospital with unknown injuries.
All six people in the mobile home were related, Duesler said; however, no names or other identifiers were released as of press time. Duesler said the names would not be released until the family notified all the other family members they wanted to notify.
In a 5 p.m. Friday email from Duesler, he said the sheriff's office is awaiting "absolute confirmation" of ages and sexes of the victims, and was not releasing any further information. Duesler also said in the email that no updates are expected over the weekend.
Morales said he went to the mobile home where the men were banging on the walls and screaming for the people supposedly inside, but he never heard any noises or saw any people inside the mobile home.
He didn't know the neighbors, but said he was shocked so many people in the mobile home park slept through the fire, and even he didn't wake up until his dogs started barking.
In fact, several of the neighbors who were at the mobile home park Friday morning said the family in that home had only moved in two to four months ago and no one knew them well.
Kevin Casteel, 27, said he's staying with some friends at one of the mobile homes in the park and spoke every day for the past week with one of the men in that home.
He said the man was nice and was trying to help Casteel get a job in the oilfield as a roughneck. Although he wasn't home at the time of the fire, Casteel said the family had been renovating the mobile home for the past month.
Eusebio Guerrero, 62, said he did not wake up until 8:30 a.m., long after the fire had been put out.
While he didn't know the family, Guerrero said they were always friendly.
"Every time when they saw me, they told me, 'How are you doing?'" Guerrero said.
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