Mother and 3 kids killed in Benton City mobile home fire. They had just moved in

A mother and her three kids were killed in a mobile home fire in Benton City on Thursday.

They’d been moving into the mobile home from a nearby apartment and decided to sleep there because the mobile home had air conditioning, said family friend Lucia Martinez.

She identified her friend as Marcaria Martinez and her teen daughter and son, Luz and Luis, and a grade-school daughter, Michelle.

Marcaria Martinez’s husband is reportedly working out of state, possibly fighting forest fires, said Lucia Martinez.

The victims’ names will be officially released after their identities are confirmed by the coroner, said Benton County sheriff’s officials.

Faustino Lopez, a neighbor at the Green Acres Mobile Home and RV Park, told the Herald he was sleeping and heard several loud blasts, likely from propane tanks. He then saw flames shooting into the air 20 to 30 feet and scorching nearby trees.

He heard another neighbor calling for help as the fire started burning toward their mobile home in the area off Babs Avenue.

Lopez said some neighbors tried to open the front door of the Martinez home but the door was already too hot and the intense heat kept neighbors from being able to get close enough to spray water from garden hoses.

He told the Herald the fire appeared to burning most intensely in the front of the mobile home, near the kitchen and living room.

When firefighters with Benton County Fire District 2 and sheriff’s deputies arrived just before 1 a.m., they found the home engulfed in flames and the fire spreading to nearby structures.

When firefighters entered the house, they found the family members, said Benton County Coroner Bill Leach.

Lucia Martinez said her friend and the teens had been working this summer in the agricultural fields.

She said she knew the family because they lived in the same apartment complex for about a year.

Benton County Lt. Jon Schwarder said detectives are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire.

The park’s manager confirmed that the family had just moved in, and they were trying to reach Martinez’s husband.

Coroner officials have tentatively scheduled autopsies for early next week.

This is the second fatal fire within a week. Tara Ulmen Didier died from smoke inhalation in a fire at her home in Kennewick on Aug. 19. The house had no working smoke alarms, said fire officials.

This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 8:56 AM.