His father and a great-uncle are taken to the hospital after attempts to save the child in a mobile home fail.
By ANNE BROACHE
Published June 24, 2004
[Times photo: Dan McDuffie]
An investigator helps examine the remains of a trailer at 8407 Heather Dr. in Zephyrhills. Christopher Sanford (right), 12, was killed in the blaze Wednesday morning.
ZEPHYRHILLS - It sounded like children playing with firecrackers.
That was what 24-year-old Bob Botelho thought when he awoke to the noises just before 5 a.m. Wednesday. Figuring the kids soon would tire, he tried to go back to sleep.
Then he looked out of his window.
"The whole sky was on fire," he said.
The white single-wide mobile home across the street was ablaze. Botelho threw on a pair of shorts and bolted over barefoot.
He knew he had to help his good friend, Ronald Sanford, who lived in the home at 8407 Heather Drive with his 12-year-old son, Chris.
Ron had heard the smoke alarm and escaped without injuries. But Chris and Cinnamon, a 6-month-old mixed-breed puppy, were still trapped inside.
When Botelho arrived, Ron, 32, and Chris' uncle, Doug, were using metal clippers and a sledgehammer to rip a hole through the wall to get to Chris' bedroom.
Hoping to retrieve the boy, Botelho managed to maneuver most of his slim torso through the hole that had formed. But thick smoke enveloped the room, and he couldn't see anything, he said.
The fire was spreading, and Chris' relatives started pulling Botelho back out to safety. By then, the firefighters had arrived.
But they could not save Chris.
Later Wednesday friends and relatives remembered him fondly. The mature, mild-mannered boy loved his family and got along with classmates at his Christian school, they said.
Cinnamon, the pup, also perished in the fire.
Pasco County Fire Rescue received a call about the incident at 5:12 a.m. The Zephyrhills Fire Department and Sheriff's Office also responded.
When he emerged from his home nearby to see what had happened, Chris' great-uncle, Willie Quick, 70, suffered chest pains. He was treated at East Pasco Medical Center.
Ron was hospitalized later that morning because of smoke inhalation. Hospital officials would not comment on either patient's status Wednesday.
Officials had not released information about the fire's cause or other circumstances as of Wednesday evening.
Throughout the day, state and county fire marshals searched for evidence at the home, which was charred. By late afternoon, they had removed the yellow crime scene tape, and relatives moved in closer to survey the damage.
Ron and Chris lived in a cluster of seven mobile homes inhabited by members of their family - many generations' worth, said Tawana Neal, Ron's first cousin, who lives across the street.
Much of the family was born and raised in the Zephyrhills area, Neal said. They liked to get together at their Heather Drive compound for Sunday dinners, holidays and birthdays.
Neal said she was awake and getting ready for work Wednesday morning when she heard popping noises and saw flames erupting from the kitchen window of her cousin's mobile home. She immediately called 911 and then ran to offer help. Her 16-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son joined her.
"There was nothing we could do," she said. "There was no way we could get to him."
Chris had red hair and freckles and would be entering seventh grade at Zephyrhills Christian Academy. His parents were divorced, but he lived with his father and grandmother during the week to be closer to the school.
But Chris' grandmother was recovering from surgery and staying with a nearby relative when the fire started.
Chris wanted to be a train engineer when he grew up, Neal said, because the machines fascinated him.
While the investigation continued, Neal and other relatives gathered to console each other in the shade of nearby trees.
About an hour after the blaze, they also called in the Rev. Mike Smith to bring comfort.
Smith, who is also principal at Zephyrhills Christian Academy, said he was always impressed at the way Chris, unlike many of his peers, could transcend cliques.
"He was friends with everyone," Smith said. "And, no question, he loved the Lord."
When Chris started at the school a little more than a year ago, he was a little behind in his studies, Smith said. But by the end of this year he was excelling.
Chris liked to play sports, though he wasn't particularly athletic, Smith said. When he caught a ball in gym, he would unleash his enthusiasm about the accomplishment - a sight that made Smith smile.
Smith said he planned to address his church at Wednesday evening services and break the news to Chris' youth group buddies.
Looking wistful, Smith declared, "He was a great overall kid."
Botelho, the neighbor, said he tutored Chris in math for two months. He was the child every person wants, Botelho recalled.
The boy could be as satisfied with an inexpensive McDonald's Happy Meal toy, he said, as with a pricier Nintendo Xbox video game system.
"He didn't ask for anything - that was the neatest thing about him," Botelho said.
In recent weeks, mobile home blazes have claimed two lives.
On June 9, a late-night fire in Odessa gutted a mobile home and killed 37-year-old Tina Marie Headd and her 3-year-old son, Shane Patrick Haddigan. The homeowner, Morgan Emiroglu, 57, managed to escape.
On Sunday morning, the Sheriff's Office reported a mobile home fire in New Port Richey.
The home's resident, Jonathan Charles Liknes, 46, remained in critical condition Wednesday at Tampa General Hospital. He suffered second- to third-degree burns on about 80 percent of his body.
Authorities said that fire's cause was likely accidental.
An investigator helps examine the remains of a trailer at 8407 Heather Dr. in Zephyrhills. Christopher Sanford (right), 12, was killed in the blaze Wednesday morning.