2 kids saved from fire die; 6 in family dead

Except for the sound of cars roaring on I-70, it was quiet Sunday on North Olney Street. A memorial of teddy bears and red and white candles stood outside the Eastside home where a family of six used to live.

The scene was almost desolate until a little girl in a pink sweater arrived with her mother. She placed Goomer, her polar bear stuffed toy, alongside the memorial. Kneeling in front of the yard where one of her best friends used to play, 7-year-old Jade Calderon wept.

"Mommy, my friend! My friend!" Jade cried as her mother, Noemi, wrapped a red checkered blanket around her.

Jade and her mother drove to the house in the 2100 block of North Olney on Sunday afternoon. They had just found out that Jade's close friend, 6-year-old Fuentes Guerra, died at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, where he had been in critical condition since a fire ravaged his family's home Saturday morning. His parents, Lionel "Leo" Guerra, 47, and Brandy Mae Guerra, 33, and two of his siblings, Esteban, 11, and Blanquita, 8, died Saturday. Fuentes and the remaining other sibling, Miranda, 14, died Sunday.

Noemi Calderon said Jade had been crying since she found out Fuentes had died. The two were classmates at Lighthouse Charter School. Jade said she liked hanging out with Fuentes. They even joked about marrying each other someday.

"He was really nice," Jade said, tears rolling down her cheeks. "He's a good drawer."

Noemi Calderon hugged her daughter, placing Jade's face against her chest as she tried to console her.

"See, he had love from a lot of people. See?" Noemi Calderon told her daughter, as she pointed at the collection of stuffed toys and candles.

Standing a few feet from where Jade and Noemi Calderon were kneeling was Renzie Miller, a neighbor down the street. He stopped by the house Sunday afternoon to pay his respects.

Miller rushed to the house Saturday morning after he smelled wood burning. He said he saw firefighters performing CPR on the parents. Right in front of the street beside the memorial is where he saw one of the boys lying on a gurney as medics tried to revive him, Miller said. The child's hands were hanging loosely on each side, his head tilted, his face turning gray.

"I'll never get over this," Miller said, his eyes teary. "I'll never get that little kid's face out of my mind."

Miller said he does not know the family. They mostly kept to themselves. But he saw the kids playing in the yard every time he drove by.

The first 911 call came in about 9:06 a.m. Saturday, but the caller could not provide an accurate location. The first fire engine arrived about 7 minutes later after other callers gave the street address, said Capt. Rita Reith, department spokeswoman.

She said Saturday that even the first responders were shaken by the tragedy. On Sunday, an off-duty firefighter from Station 10 stopped by the scene of the fire. Teary-eyed, he declined to be interviewed. He left after a TV station van pulled up.

With the deaths of Fuentes and Miranda, determining the cause of the fire will take more time, Reith said.

"The investigation may take even longer because there are no surviving members to talk about what happened," she said. "Investigators were hoping to talk to one of the kids to get an idea of what happened.

"But that's not possible now."

Reith said investigators did not find a working smoke detector in the home.

Call Star reporter Kristine Guerra at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @kristine_guerra.