NEED TO KNOW
- A teen has died after a large brush fire began in a Nevada park
- Family members identified the deceased as 19-year-old Kevin Reed
- He graduated high school in 2024, the same year that his mother died
Family members are seeking answers after a young man died following a brush fire at a public Nevada park on Jan. 14.
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal shared Monday, Jan. 19, loved ones identified the deceased as 19-year-old Kevin Reed.
The Henderson Fire Department said in a Jan. 14 press release that firefighters responded to the Whitney Mesa brush fire at approximately 4:22 a.m. that same morning near Sunset Road and Arroyo Grande Boulevard.
Authorities did not provide a victim’s name at the time, but did note that “one deceased individual was located.”
“We really don’t know what happened, but we know that something is not right,” Reed’s older sister, Summer Carpenter, told the Review-Journal.
She said her sibling lived in an encampment inside the park between friends and family. However, Reed was the only one who did not survive.
“We want to know why nobody helped him,” Carpenter said.
Reed graduated from Green Valley High School in 2024, the same year his mother died, leaving Carpenter to feel as though her family can’t catch a break.
His foster father, Oscar Sanchez Camacho-Waters, shared a video that his son recently posted to social media with Las Vegas news station KSNV.
“I got my diploma, honestly, I didn’t even think I was going to get it, but with the help of my beautiful parents, I got it, that’s a blessing, man, now life for me is going to get better, and I pray for that man,” Reed said in the footage.
Reed was remembered for his positive attitude and outlook on life.
“We are forever grateful that Kevin also allowed my husband and I to be his parents; he showed us love and kindness, even on the days that were stressful and heavy,” Camacho-Waters told KSNV. “Our minds keep going back as to how, how did it happen?”
PEOPLE reached out to the Henderson Fire Department for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
The agency previously said the large fire led approximately 60 personnel to respond with assistance from the Clark County Fire Department and the Bureau of Land Management.
About 50 residents were evacuated due to heavy smoke.
Carpenter told KTNV that she and Reed were two of seven siblings, and were in the middle in terms of their ages.
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When describing her brother, who loved BMX, she said he was “Very goofy. Loved to be outdoors. Very spunky. Very protective, you know, needed anything, he was there.”
Reed was known to love Whitney Mesa Park, with Carpenter adding that Reed was “Always in the biking trails, whether it was the park, on the bikes, hiking, by the water over there. He was always over there; he enjoyed being over there.”
A GoFundMe has been started to assist his family.
Read the full article here
