2 teens confirmed as victims killed in New Year's Day house fire in El Dorado County
SOMERSET — Two teens have been identified as the victims of an El Dorado County deadly house fire on New Year's Day. The El Dorado County coroner confirmed the victims were a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy.
The family of 15-year-old Noah Chesterman confirmed he was one of the two killed in the fire. The Union Mine High School freshman was a "light to his family," they said.
His mother added, "he was a kind-hearted kid that loved everyone he met and he took care of everyone around him."
The family shared Chesterman's "favorite" photo with CBS13, which shows the teen in his football uniform. His hobbies included hanging out with friends, his sister, and riding his dirt bike.
The call for an active fire came around 3:50 a.m. on January 1, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office. Fire crews responded within 30 seconds of the call, according to Pioneer Fire Protection District Chief David Whitt.
The station is located on Mt. Aukum Road in Somerset, directly across from the Candlelight Village, where the mobile home fire burned. Dispatch was notified that the home was fully involved in flames when it was reported.
Six people were inside the home: two teens were killed, two people were transported to Marshall Hospital for minor injuries, and two people were unharmed.
"The fire, especially in a mobile home, gets a really big head start. They're not designed to burn. They're designed to keep weather out, and that's about it. They're very thin material, very thin walls, very limited construction." said Whitt, in describing how the fire burned through the structure.
What is still unknown, according to Whitt, is if there were working smoke detectors and how long the fire burned before anyone inside the house was notified.
"The other part of the issue again was like, how much did the fire advance without the occupants knowing? And we won't know that so we know that several of the occupants were woken up. We're not exactly sure if the two victims had been woken up during the fire. So we're assuming that there probably was not working smoke detectors within the home," Whitt said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
A friend of the Chesterman family started a fundraiser for funeral costs.
