MOUNTAIN PINE (KTHV) -- Garland County authorities have released the names of a man and a teenager who died in a weekend fire at Mountain Pine.
The sheriff's office says the victims are 49-year-old Ricky Clinton and 13-year-old Tyler French. Authorities say French was spending the night with Clinton's son and another teenager.
Bystanders say the home next door caught fire first then spread to the home on 8th street in Mountain Pine.
Three children were saved from the burning home by Clinton who died in the blaze along with a friend of his son's.
It was supposed to be just a sleep over with three buddies. "I just remember waking up and hearing, all I heard was fire crackling," Bradley Nelson a survivor of the fire says.
People could still smell the smoke outside the home on 8th street where the fire happened nearly 24 hours before.
"I heard Chris's dad Ricky yelling names and stuff and I didn't know what to do I keep yelling help and could breath," Nelson says recounting the fire.
"They had a blanket over the doorway instead of a door. I opened up the blanket and heat flew in and hit me. I stayed in the room and covered my head with a sheet trying to keep the smoke out," Bradley says. "I heard Ricky scream again, so I ran back to the doorway, and I felt him by my foot and he picked up and carried me out the back door it was like really fast. I don't know how he did it that fast. I think there was an angel there that carried him and me."
Bradley says Ricky, the only adult home during the incident brought him outside where Ricky's children, were safe already. Then he ran back inside.
"I turned around and looked back at the door way and all I could see was smoke coming out of the door and he wasn't there," Bradley says.
"The man that did this didn't have to go back in. He had his kids," Bree Nelson says.
Bree Nelson is Bradley's mom. She got a phone call about 2 a.m. Saturday morning from her son telling her what happened and how Ricky saved her son's life, but after trying to save one more, he was overcome by the fire.
"I've spent all day yesterday and today still crying because I want to tell him, I want to walk up and shake his hand. I want to hug his neck. Just tell him thank you, cause he gave me my son back," Bree Nelson says.
"He's a hero, a real hero," Bradley added.
The Red Cross Disaster Team from Hot Springs came to the aid of those in the community right after the fire. The Disaster team is providing emotional support to the remaining family members as well as providing clothing and funeral assistance.
The bodies were sent to the State Crime Lab in Little Rock to
determine the exact cause of death.
The cause of the fire has not been determined - but firefighters
believe it started in a home next door and spread to the Clinton
home. No one was at home in the second house.