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House fire that killed Pasco 6-year-old under investigation

Staff photo by RUGENE MOORE

Investigators collect evidence after a 6-year-old died in a fire in Port Richey.

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By LISA A. DAVIS | The Tampa Tribune
and JENNIFER LEIGH | News Channel 8

Published: November 16, 2009

Updated: 11/16/2009 04:20 pm

PORT RICHEY - Hannelore Hoffmen could see the chaos and hear it outside of her neighbor's home Sunday night: the smoke, the crackling of the fire, the confusion from those who had been inside and the screams. Those haunting screams.

What she couldn't see, though, was that 6-year-old Brice Atkeson was dying inside.

Just moments before, Hoffmen's39-year-old son came running into her house after putting out the trash, yelling at her to call 911.

The neighbor's house is on fire, he told her shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday.

Dialing for help on her cell phone, she walked down Bridleton Road and stopped in front of 10925, a single-family house. She was giving dispatchers a play-by-play of what was going on. Outside a woman appeared to be "in shock" and kept repeating herself.

"There's kids in the house. There's kids in the house," Hoffmen recalled the woman saying. "She just kept saying it over and over."

Hoffmen couldn't see the flames until she got closer.

"When I looked into the front door you could see flames in the kitchen," she said. "And then we heard popping, lots of popping."

Hoffmen spotted Michael Hatalski, 26, who was walking around shirtless and clearly in pain from burns on his hands. Then he sat on the sidewalk screaming, she said.

"I mean all the screaming from people it was just awful," Hoffmen said.

At some point Hoffmen's son went around back, throwing bricks through the window trying to the 6-year-old out of the burning home. The smoke was simply too much, she said.

"My son was the first one there and then people gradually started coming out of the houses."

Two other children escaped, Bradley Hatalski, 2, and Bryant Atkeson, 5, escaped uninjured from the blaze, sheriff's office spokesman Kevin Doll said.

Michael Hatalski, who is Bradley's father, was flown by medical helicopter to a local hospital with second-degree burns. The children's mother, Danielle Hopkins, 25, was also taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Doll said.

Pasco Fire officials are still investigating the fire and haven't yet released a cause or its origin.

The home Holiday Hills Estates wasn't equipped with working smoke detectors, said Assistant Chief Mike Ciccarello.

Brice was taken to a local hospital where he soon died, Doll said.

Brice was a bubbly child, said his uncle, Jerome Atkeson.

"…Just the sweetest kid you'll ever know," said Atkeson. "…He was always happy. He was always energetic, always wanting to go out and do things and play and have fun. And that's Brice."

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