A 45-year-old Fountain man died in his burning mobile home early today when he went back inside to get a key for the back gate, fire officials said.
The family had escaped the home at 512 Windsor Lane, but were trapped inside a locked back fence. Joey Nutra went back to get the key from his wife’s purse, but he never came back out.
“Mrs. Nauta broke the back windows of the mobile home in an attempt to get her husband to escape the fire,” Fountain Fire Chief Darin Anstine said in an e-mail.
Joey Nutra was found 3 feet from the door, Anstine said.
Nutra’s wife, whose name was not released, helped a 5-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, over the fence then was able to climb over to escape the fire.
She had been the first to smell smoke and woke up the rest of the family about 2 a.m., Anstine said.
The cause of the fire was an electric overload of an electrical outlet caused by Christmas lights, he said.
“A section of Christmas lights on the Christmas tree had been arcing the evening before the fire,” he said.
The mobile home is in a park, and when fire crews arrived, three others immediately nearby were starting to burn.
“The Nauta Family lost everything they owned and do not have home insurance,” Anstine said. “An additional family suffered a loss of household items and is in need as well. “The fire department is in the process of finding out exactly what the second family needs are so we can relay that to the public.”
The department is accepting donations of food, money, clothing, appliances and housewares at any Fountain fire station.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
