Smoke alarm alerts family to flames
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A mother of eight whose 5-year-old daughter died in a fire Monday is pleading for her help as she searches for answers about what led to the young girl’s death.
The fire happened at an apartment in the northeast valley near Owens Avenue and Nellis Boulevard, killing Cyncere Loper. The Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority operates the complex.
“We don’t know where it started,” Keyonna Tatum said Wednesday.
Candles and balloons marked the spot where the tragedy struck. Tatum said she and seven of her eight children were inside when the flames broke out.
“I had to throw my kids from the second-story window, and I jumped out,” she said. Everyone made it out except Cyncere, Tatum said.
“Cyncere was a happy, loving baby,” Tatum said. “She didn’t deserve none of this. She was always singing and always dancing. She was a daddy’s girl. She loved her dad.”
Tatum is hoping she can raise money through a GoFundMe to help bury her daughter.
“I want her to be remembered as the happy child that she was,” Tatum said. “All my material things can be replaced, my daughter can’t.”
The cause of the fire remained under investigation as of Wednesday. People living in the building were being put up at hotels.
Tatum told 8 News Now’s Joe Moeller she believes the fire started in a wall.
“I want to tell everyone, be on your smoke detectors, be on your wires if you have loose sockets,” Tatum said. “If you have water heaters that are going out, if you have problems like we had in our unit, be on that, so that this doesn’t have to happen to another child.”
Tatum has set a goal of $20,000 on the GoFundMe page.