Alaska Dispatch News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Two young girls have died after a fire tore through their family’s East Anchorage mobile home early Saturday morning, according to the Anchorage Fire Department.
“Lily was my darling and Aleyiah was my princess,” said the girls’ uncle, Adrian Poulin, in a phone interview Monday from Jacksonville, Florida. “They were beautiful girls.”
Three-year-old Lily and 1-year-old Aleyiah were home Friday night with their father, Jonathan Nicholas Poulin, and 6-year-old brother, Nathaniel. Their mother, Rebecca Poulin, was at work. She is six months pregnant, said an set up by the children’s grandmother, Kim Panti.
Around 1 a.m. Saturday, the fire department got a report of flames at the family’s home in Riviera Terrace Trailer Court, near the intersection of Boniface Parkway and Northern Lights Boulevard.
When firefighters arrived, flames and heavy smoke billowed from the windows, battalion chief Mike Davidson said Saturday. Three children and one adult were trapped inside, said John See, fire department spokesman.
“Firefighters rescued two minors from inside the structure but, unfortunately, one was deceased,” See said.
Blonde-haired Lily did not survive. Nathaniel was not injured. Aleyiah and Jonathan, who goes by Nick, were flown to the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Adrian Poulin said. There, Aleyiah died. Nick, 23, remained in critical condition Monday, he said.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Monday, See said. That afternoon, the trailer court was quiet. Windows and doors on the family’s mobile home were boarded up. A snow-covered stroller and children’s bike sat outside.
Poulin said the family had moved to Anchorage from Jacksonville within the past year. Before the move, they lived down the street from him.
He described his brother and sister-in-law as loving and their son, Nathaniel, as a “typical boy.”
“He was 90 miles an hour all day. He’s always into something, but he’s a good boy. He’s a daddy’s boy for sure,” he said of Nathaniel. “I’m so glad he got out.”
The girls were innocent, he said. Aleyiah, he only saw as a baby but said he will remember her chubby cheeks. He watched Lily grow up. He remembers holding her as a baby, her hugging him and calling him Uncle Adrian. She always had a big smile on her face, he said.
“She was my Lily,” he said. “She was just a special girl. She was so special.”
Poulin said his brother moved to Anchorage for a job in the trucking industry. Once he got settled, the rest of the family also moved north. A manager at a local Applebee’s restaurant said Monday that Rebecca Poulin had recently gotten a job there.
Adrian Poulin said he talked with his brother by phone from the hospital Monday morning and could barely understand him. He said the family will return to Florida for Lily and Aleyiah’s funeral.
“We could just use all the help we can get,” Adrian Poulin said. “I just want to make sure these girls get the best service they can.”
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