Child dies in Clovis house fire

CLOVIS — A Tuesday morning fire at a trailer home claimed the life of a 2-year-old Clovis girl.

First responders were alerted to the blaze at 4:12 a.m. on the 1900 block of East Sixth Street, and were told on scene a child was still inside the home, according to a release from the Clovis Police Department. The release said a 2-year-old girl perished in the fire, and her mother was taken to Plains Regional Medical Center for burns on her arms.

Officials had not released identities of anybody involved as of Tuesday afternoon, but family members said 2-year-old Lizzy Martinez and her mother, Amber Martinez, were asleep in the home when the fire started.

“Amber has burns; we just got her back from (a hospital) in Lubbock,” said Fabian Martinez, Amber’s father, late Tuesday afternoon.

“She tried to take (Lizzy) out of the fire, but the place was too hot. She couldn’t get in there.”

Fabian Martinez said he had no idea how the fire started.

Clovis Fire Chief Michael Nolen said that by the time the department arrived, the house was fully engulfed. Due to a fatality, Nolen said, the state fire marshal was contacted and was on scene Tuesday afternoon while CFD personnel helped in the investigation of the scene.

Nolen said the home had three occupants — the child, an adult male and an adult female. He was not sure how or where the fire started, and deferred other questions to Clovis police.

Attempts to contact the CPD for further information Tuesday afternoon were not successful.

The last person believed to have died locally in a house fire was 51-year-old Michael Norris, who was found in an abandoned Clovis house that caught fire in February 2015. Two people were found in a house fire in March 2016 in Portales, but the deaths were reclassified as homicides after preliminary autopsy reports showed both were shot prior to the fire.