Boy, 5, Escapes Fire in Duplex but Mother Dies

A 5-year-old Long Beach boy was hospitalized Sunday after he escaped from a fire that swept through his home, killing his mother and critically injuring her boyfriend.

Authorities said Nicholas McLellan, who turned 5 on Sunday, was able to break through a plate glass window, crawl out the front door and run to the nearby home of family friends.

Nicholas arrived at his neighbor’s home at 5 a.m., dressed in his light blue pajamas, bloody and covered with soot.

“It’s me, Nicholas,” he said, as he pounded on the door. “I’m hurt really bad.”

After police and firefighters arrived, Laura McLellan, 30, and her son were taken to Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach, where the woman died and the boy was in serious condition.

Paul Wilkinson, 29, was reported in critical condition at St. Mary Medical Center on Sunday.

Long Beach Police Lt. Donald First said Nicholas awakened when he smelled smoke and saw flames at the end of his bed in the single-story duplex in the 700 block of East Sunrise Boulevard.

Nicholas had been sleeping in the living room, where heat from a floor furnace apparently ignited Christmas packages. The flames barred the boy from reaching his mother or the telephone in the duplex, First said.

The injured child--his hair burned to the scalp, and suffering from cuts and smoke inhalation--ran past eight houses to reach the home of Joseph and Dominique DeVito. Nicholas is a playmate of the DeVitos’ 6-year-old son.

DeVito said he was afraid to answer the door at first, wondering who it could be at that early hour.

“I opened the door and he was all cut up,” DeVito said. “He was covered with soot. His hair was singed, but he wasn’t burned. There was so much blood on him, from his hands.”

Didn’t Mention Fire

DeVito said the blond-haired, blue-eyed boy was not crying. Nor did he mention anything about a fire.

DeVito’s wife and mother took Nicholas into their bathroom to clean him up, while DeVito ran down the block to find the child’s mother. He saw the house burning, and, after trying unsuccessfully to get in, awakened neighbors, who called the Long Beach Fire Department.

“There was no way I could get in the house,” DeVito said. “The heat coming out of there was unbelievable. I knew they were in there, too.”

Nine fire companies extinguished the blaze by 5:15 a.m., dispatcher Joann Kerr said. Damage to the house was estimated at $6,000 to $10,000.

Police officers Steve Prell and Hollace Page heard the fire call and found the boy standing at the DeVito home in his pajamas. Page picked up the boy and the officers took him to the hospital.

“The kid had a death grip on me,” Page said.

The child was in shock, First said.

DeVito described Nicholas as an energetic, well-spoken child, who could ride a two-wheel bicycle, without training wheels, at the age of 3.

He said Nicholas generally slept in the living room of his home, while his mother and her boyfriend slept in a bedroom in the back.

Sunday afternoon, as he noticed drops of the child’s blood on his doorstep, DeVito fought back tears.

“I don’t know what was going through that kid’s head,” he said. “But he made it.”