Fire too fast to save four in Snohomish

SNOHOMISH — The last thing Sandra Maria Montaño heard from the people she worked with at the restaurant was “see you on Tuesday.”

She never showed up.

Montaño, 28, died along with her younger sister and two daughters, ages 4 and 7, in a mobile home fire in Snohomish on Tuesday morning.

Co-workers at Tampico Restaurant in Everett said she was a happy and kind person who liked to tell jokes.

“She liked to sing and talk about dances,” waiter Juan Medina said. Her cell phone featured a ringtone of a song from Vicente Fernandez, a popular Mexican singer known for ballads about love, heartbreak and his homeland. Montaño grew up in Jalisco, the same state as Fernandez.

Montaño’s co-workers started making calls looking for her when she did not arrive at work. Rogelio Peña, another coworker, said that he knew something was wrong.

Officials are investigating the fire at the Snohomish Mobile Home and RV Park along Avenue D. They say it is suspicious.

“We became sad when we found out what happened,” Peña said.

Peña said that he only saw Montaño’s sister twice when she came to pick her up. He also met her daughters when she took them to eat dinner at the restaurant.

The fire broke out just before 7 a.m. A specially trained dog detected signs of a flammable accelerant at the scene, but it is too early to know whether the blaze was deliberately set, officials said.

Miguel Angel Montaño Reynaga, the brother of the two women and uncle of the two girls, said that he hopes the fire was accidental.

“It would cause outrage” if it wasn’t, Montaño Reynaga said in Spanish.

Sandra Maria Montaño died along with her daughters, Ashley, 7, and Yareli, 4, and her sister Claudia Montaño, 25, Montaño Reynaga said. The whole family was from the state of Jalisco, Mexico. The girls’ father has been dead for years, officials said.

The victims moved into the mobile home on Friday, park manager Sherree Simpson said. They were still moving their belongings in over the weekend.

“It’s pretty devastating. They haven’t been here for a long time but it doesn’t matter,” Simpson said. “They were small children.”

The family just picked up the registration packet from the Snohomish School District for the older girl to attend Riverview Elementary School, said J.Marie Riche, district communication director.

“This is hard for folks in school and anyone who has met the family,” Riche said.

Meanwhile, a team of investigators from multiple agencies, including the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Washington State Patrol, is investigating the incident.

“We owe the family and the community as complete information as possible,” Snohomish Police Sgt. Jeff Shelton said. “We will use everything we can.”

The deadly fire erupted at 6:57 a.m., Snohomish Fire Deputy Chief Ron Simmons said.

Firefighters arrived at the scene just across Avenue D from the fire station two minutes later. No firefighters were injured in the blaze, which was put out at 7:23 a.m., Simmons said.

Katharine Ryan and Dean Prigg of Snohomish had just stepped out of a grocery store about 6:45 a.m. when they saw smoke rising across Avenue D. The couple rushed to the mobile home park, and a big flame went up into the sky.

“We were watching because by the time we got there. There was no way to get close,” Ryan said.

At first, the couple figured — and hoped — that nobody was caught in the burning building. Later, they learned that four people died.

“It suddenly became a very sad tragedy,” Prigg said.

Prigg and Ryan stayed at the scene for a few hours after crews put out the fire.

“I feel pretty (awful) and helpless,” Ryan said. “What can I do?”

The mobile home park is on the north end of Snohomish and is full of older, single-wide homes. There are 44 units on the property.

“These mobile homes are tight. We had concern for many years,” Simmons said.

Including those killed Tuesday, there have been 31 deaths in fires statewide this year, Deputy State Fire Marshal Karen Jones said.

The leading cause of mobile home fires is faulty wiring, Jones said. That’s why people who live in mobile homes are strongly encouraged to have more than one working smoke alarm, especially outside bedrooms, she said.

“That will give them the essential seconds or minutes to escape,” Jones said.

As the weather gets colder, heaters will begin to automatically turn on, she said. People need to make sure blankets, furniture and other possible combustibles are at least three feet away from heaters, Jones said.

Simmons said he plans to talk to city officials about how to prevent another fire from happening at the mobile home park.

City manager Larry Bauman said that he’s still trying to understand Tuesday’s tragedy.

“It’s just a horrific thing that happened,” Bauman said. “I don’t know what else to say. It’s senseless.”