Two children, from 2 and 6 years old died in a home fire on Saturday night in Trial Farm Village, just outside of Orange Walk. Candles are the suspected cause of the fire. Neighbors say the mother, Lavern Palacio-Alvarez and her 11 children had been living in the three-bedroom apartment without electricity for at least a month and had apparently been using candles for light.
On Saturday night, 6 of those 11 were inside the small pimento structure and a 12-year-old daughter was left in charge. But despite that 12 year old's desperate attempts to save her siblings, there were two she could not save. Our Orange Walk affiliate Northern Cable was on the scene and Alfonso Noble followed up today. Here's how 2-year-old DeShawn and 7-year-old Davis Alvarez died.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
This is the scene shortly after fire consumed this home on Swallow Street in Trial Farm Village. Usually only fire investigators would come out to go through the rubble, but on this night forensic investigators had to sift through the embers to find charred remains like this- all that’s left of brothers, 2 year old DeShawn and 6 year old davis Alvarez, who perished in the blaze. As neighbors gathered around the burning house, all they could do was stand around powerless and listen to the anguish cries of the children as they burnt inside.
Neighbor #1,
“We just heard the little girl was calling for help so she stopped us and she was asking my husband to help her because her two little brothers were inside so he came out but he told me to stay inside. I heard one voice and it was a little boy crying for his mommy to help him because he was getting burnt. So I came out from the vehicle but another stopped me and told me that we can’t do anything.”
Neighbor #2,
“We heard children and the agony that were going through. It was a cruel death that they received. It is painful to see two little kids in there. You could have actually heard the agony, the screaming that they were doing but nothing could have been done because as I said before, the house was already engulfed in fire so it was late.”
Investigators and neighbors say candles left burning inside the home started the fire.
Neighbor #3,
“All they had was candles burning inside because that is the usual light they use everyday. Everyday they use that in there.”
Supt. Robert Mariano,
“The children had four candles on inside the house that night and they fell asleep leaving the candles on. We believe that the house was burnt as a result of the candle.”
Investigating Officer
“We know for a fact that two of the candles were in the TV stand area, one was placed on top of the TV stand and the other was on top of the television, one was inside the bathroom and one was inside the mother’s bedroom where we believe two of the children were sleeping at the time. I have liased with the Orange Walk Fire Department and they have mentioned to me that they that fire started in the area of the hall, in the area of the sofa, near the TV stand.”
The eldest child at the home at the time, 12-year-old Christine Palacio woke up to intense heat and suffocating smoke. She got out 4 of her siblings and was going back inside for 6-year-old Davis, when a bewildered 2-year-old DeShawn followed her.
“We found the youngest child, the two year old, still lying on the and the 7 year was lying inside the bedroom, almost close to the door. In her account she says that when she woke up because of intense heat, she managed to take out the youngest one and she tried to take out the others. She said that at one point she went back inside and it was then the younger kid followed her and then she was not aware of it. And when she managed to take out the others she could not get back into the house. She said she tried to bang on the window so that the seven year old could open the window and escape from there but according to her the 7 year old was unable to reach the window to escape from the window.”
This is the bed where DeShawn was found. His brother Davis was here just a couple feet away. It’s a horrific scene and the grandfather of the two children says his daughter was wrong to leave them at home.
Grandfather,
“It is not joke for you to go and leave your two children in the house sleeping. At least I said somebody big should have been here. I think a mother, if she loves her child, especially the two smallest ones, I have my children, my two smallest ones, and I wouldn’t leave them by themselves in a house like that. I think somebody big should have been there.”
Officer Commanding Orange Walk Superintendent Robert Mariano agrees. He says
she should have been at home taking care of her children, but instead she was at a private party.
Supt. Robert Mariano,
“Investigations reveal later that the mother went out to a private party and she left her twelve year old or thirteen year old daughter in charge of five others. So she was taking care of the five other children. The range of the other children would be from twelve to two years old.”
And because of that he’ll make an example of the case.
Supt. Robert Mariano,
“She has a duty to ensure the safety of her children and on that night she failed to do that. That is why she is being charged for causing the death because it is her duty to ensure that these children were left with an adult or somebody responsible and she didn’t do that. So she is responsible for her children.
She was formally arrested and charged yesterday for two counts of manslaughter by negligence and two counts of causing death by careless conduct. I have instructed my prosecutor to object to bail. The reason why is we have to get the message across that mothers and fathers have to be more responsible so that they know what will happen in the event there is any reoccurrence of such.”
And while law making an example of this 35-year-old mother of 11, there is evidence that she had fulfilled at least one primary responsibility. Eleven children lived at this house. Nine of them were preparing for the first day of school on Monday. Evidence of that preparation comes here. This school bag with a tennis show and a folder. Other evidence of the preparation is scattered everywhere.
One child who did make it to school was the 14 year old. We can’t show his face but these community nurses aids, neighbors, who have taken him in say he will be loved.
Neighbor #4,
“The children are very helpful and obedient. Everything I ask them to do, they do it.”
Neighbor #5,
“I’m preparing to mine (take care of) him as my son. I will give him my love and all that I give to my son for him.”
And that’s the kind of neighborly gesture that will have to continue to be extended to these children if they are ever to get past the horror of this night that they were witnesses to.
Lavern Palacio Alvarez was today charged in Magistrate's Court in Orange Walk where, despite the objection of the police, the magistrate offered her bail of $5,000 with a surety in the same amount. Palacio is to reappear in court on October 5th. The funeral for the children will be held later. For the time being custody of four of them has been transferred to their father, while the remaining 7 will stay with family and friends.
