This is the statement of Pamela Mulaskey who used to live at 4905 Lincoln Blvd. Oroville, Ca. 95966 until the night of the fire. I lived with LaRose Mello, and my two children at the time of the arson fire.
When the fire broke out, I was sound asleep in Grandma’s house. I had moved out of Zette (Susan Marie Mello,(maiden name)Overstreet,Etter, and Donald Eugene Etter's home at 4925 Lincoln Blvd. about a month before to live with Grandma. Susan and Don did not pay the bills with the money that they were taking from LaRose Mello, and myself, Pamela Mulaskey. There was no power in the large mobile again, and I didn't want to sleep outside because of the stalking, animal mutilation's, and two Rotweiller dogs that had been coming in the yard to hurt my family. Wesley Peden and I had five attacks that took place after information was learned by Susan Overstreet/Mello, and Donald Etter that Wesley Peden, my boyfriend at the time, and now my fiance' was attacked by dogs when he was a child, and was in the hospital, and almost died from the attacks. Two dogs had been killed that protected us from the attacks, and I had no choice, but to move into LaRose Mello's home. The stalking, animal mutilations, gun fire, stealing, and such had been taking place for about four years with no help from any agency in Butte County. There is a reason for that as well, but that information will be posted in a section of this blog at a later date.
On Friday the 13th, of December 2002, at about 11:30 p.m., Kristy (my daughter) came into my room screaming
“Fire!”
I said “what?”
She screamed “Fire!”.
I said “what?”
She screamed “Fire!” again, and
I said “Where?” I followed Kristy to the kitchen window, and I looked out, and saw flames that were twenty-five to thirty-five feet high. I knew right then, that there was no saving it.
The fire was in the work area at the end near grandma’s (LaRose) by the bricks, at 4905 Lincoln Blvd. (All three properties, 4905, LaRoses mobile, 4915, (my small business location), and 4925, The large double wide mobile, all next to each other on Lincoln Blvd. were owned by LaRose Mello.)All three of the properties were involved in this fire, but only the fire at the 4925 Lincoln Blvd. was listed in all of the fire reports.
It was so close to grandma’s that I didn’t know if there was even time to get out. The only reason that we did not die in the fire was because my daughter had a migrane headache during the late evening, and had slept through dinner. She became hungry, and got up for a near midnight snack. Regardless of anything that has taken place since this arson fire, my daughter Kristy Lopez saved our lives that night.
Kristy ran outside with some animal cages while I woke Grandma up. I ran to her bed, and shook her awake because she didn't have her hearing aides in, and Susan Overstreet/Mello refused to let her have them to hear.
When she looked at me, I screamed “Fire!”, she lay back down. I shook her awake again, and she looked at me again. I screamed, “Grandma, Fire!”
Grandma said, “What?”
I screamed, “Fire! There is a Fire! You have to get out!”
I helped her sit up in the bed, so that she could be carried out when I ran for help to have someone lift her because I couldn’t. She was ready and waiting, and I saw the animals in the cages in the living room.
I grabbed the cockatiels, and the Chinchilla on my way out because I didn’t know if I could get back in the door once I ran out. I ordered David to grab animals, and Kristy came running back in, and I ordered her to grab animals.
I went out the door with the cages, and set them safely away from the fire. I ran back to go into Grandma’s, and I saw Susan Overstreet/Mello sitting on the ground rocking in nothing but a shirt in the dirt and the rain.
Zuess our dog was almost on fire, and our neighbor's behind us were squirting water on him to keep him from starting on fire before we could get him to saftey. Donald Etter had locked him up with a chain and paddle lock because of the animals mutilations, and people letting our dogs off of the normal leads. I couldn’t do anything about Zuess because I had to get grandma out.
I screamed at Zette, (Susan Overstreet/Mello's nick name)
“Where is Don?”
“She screamed at me, “Get Grandma, forget the animals!”
She didn’t realize that I was going in for Grandma. When I got in the house, Grandma had already been taken out. This was when I realized that there were two ammonia bottles with rags were on fire, and the only entrance was through the front door. I couldn't go through the back door as Donald Etter had blocked it with a washing machine three days before the fire. See the photo that will be posted of the ammonia bottles with rags.
I learned after the fire that ammonia that is burned, lets off a deadly gas called, ammonia cloride gas. I had breathed this substance in, and I have been sick since the fire with many problems, and no real medical help. I even had medical documents and reports falsified, which I will post in another section of this blog, of the steps to cover the arson fire, and other events that have taken place by Butte County Officials in all of the Agencies. Question to think about. Why did Susan Overstreet/Etter send me into the fire when she knew her mother LaRose had been already rescued safely?
Grandma, (LaRose) ultimately died as a result of the fire. That information will also be posted later in this blog.
I gathered more cages, and I put them in the truck where the animals were going.
I saw grandma (LaRose) sitting in the car with the door open in a flimsy nightgown getting wet. I asked if she was okay, and
she said "yes."
I ran to try to get Bubba my cat out, and Lovie, another cat, and the Iguana. My daughter's dog Skipper who just had surgery was also stuck in the mobile at 4905 Lincoln Blvd.
It was too late. I couldn’t get through the front door any more.
I tried to get Zuess our Shephard loose again, and I couldn’t. He was located between the 4915 Lincoln Blvd. location where the fire started, and Grandma's at the 4905 Lincoln Blvd. address.
I started screaming for help, and Zette (Susan Overstreet/Etter) who sat behind me rocking, screamed at me that Don would do it.
I said okay. I saw my son David trying to help too.
I had to save Bubba, my cat that was in the back bedroom where I slept, and he was still trapped, so I ran to my bedroom window, and found something to smash the window with, so Bubba could at least escape if the fire came closer.
Then, I wanted to get into the back door to get Igi (my son's iguana)and Lovie, (A white persian cat in LaRose's bedroom) rescued, and find a way to get my daughter's dog skipper out. Skipper still could not walk well because of the rod that had been removed because of his leg being broke in half by a car recently. The S.P.C.A. had done a donation from the save a life fund for his vetrinary bills.
I climbed up the stairs, and found it blocked by a washing machine. I could barely get around it. The back door was barred, so no one could open it up from the outside because of the stalking, animal mutilations, etc. that had taken place for so many years.
The fire trucks were still not there, and I saw a man named Glen walking down the alley. I screamed at him about five times to call 911. I didn’t think that anyone had called the fire department because it had been going on for so long, and still no fire trucks. Glen ignored me. That was unusual to me because he was usually friendly. Later, it was found out about this man named Glen with a street nick name of "Rabbit", and his involvement concerning the fire, and robberies that took place after the fire with nothing being done by Law Enforcement. Why should I have thought this would be any different?
This made me angry, and I tried to open the window on the door. It wouldn’t open. I couldn’t climb through the kitchen window at all, so I ran around front again.
I checked on Zette (Susan Overstreet/Etter, who was now rocking in the street crying with it raining. Both Zette and Grandma (LaRose)had no blanket, and I was upset.
I yelled at Kristy to go get Wesley Peden at his house a couple of blocks away to help. Kristy took off running as fast as she could to go get him. The Fire Trucks were still not there, and the fire had been burning out of control with the flames at twenty-five to thirty feet high for twenty minutes or more.
Nine people had called 911 to report that their neighbor's house was on fire. The El Medio Fire Department on Myers Street in Oroville was only about a half a mile away. The fire had not quite reached the wood stove at 4905 Lincoln Blvd. when the Fire trucks were finally coming. The fire started in an area of my small business that had wet baby clothes to give away because a leak in the roof, and canned food to give away to the hungry and poor people of Oroville. It was still raining, and the flames were still almost thirty feet high.
Wes arrived, and had sent my daughter Kristy to the pay telephone to call 911. There was no telephone service because of Susan Overstreet/Etter, and Donald Etter stealing the money from LaRose and myself, and intensionally not paying the basic bills. This was all reported properly, and was expensive too.
Wes yelled at me to start getting the animals out. I started to cry more, and he went to go into the trailer to get Bubba through my window, and he was angry that he couldn’t get in the house now because the glass was broken. Now I felt incompetent, and I yelled at him that I broke it myself because I couldn’t get to the window to climb in.
David, my son, came running around, and got Wes, telling him that he had to help with the dogs in the kennel. They ran off.
By this time, Zette and Don’s bedroom was on fire, at the 4925 Lincoln Blvd. address, and the kittens and sick cats were going to be burned up that they left in the bedroom. There was a lot of time on their part to have recused them, but they did nothing. I couldn’t figure out why Zette and Don didn’t even attempt to save the kittens and sick cats on their way out. They didn’t even have anyone go open the door of their bedroom for them long before the fire ever reached their place.
Zette (Susan Overstreet/Etter), told me that she saw Abby my favorite cat crying in the window with fear, and that is the last she saw of her. I broke.
The fire department was still not putting water on the fire, and the fire had been burning for a good fifteen to twenty minutes before they arrived, and now a good fifteen minutes more had gone my, and they just stood there while it burned. A fireman had even taken a garden house out of Wesley Peden's hands to prevent the mobile from burning, and then they still stood, and did nothing. By now, there were Fire Trucks there with their lights flashing, and they stood there without a drop of water being put on the fire.
A neighbor was so angry about the situation that he took a picture of all the fire trucks just sitting in the road with their lights flashing, which numbered eight or more, without any hoses going to our fire. There was a fire hydrant in front of the house that was operational as well. But, as usual when it comes to my family, the Officials did nothing.
The same neighbor ran to our house with a fire extinguisher about the time that the fireman made Wesley Peden take the hose out of his hands, and he was yelling at the Firemen to put water on the fire while he used up his extinguisher to put some of the fire out.
An ambulance came, and I begged the paramedics to give Grandma and Zette a blanket at least because they were soaking wet, and I knew they would get sick.
I cried, "can you please get grandma and Zette a blanket! They are over there!"
They didn’t do it.
My cats were now burning alive after the mobile at the 4925 Lincoln Blvd. address exploded because of two open propane tanks being placed under the back bedroom of the mobile, and the ambulance drivers wouldn’t even help the people I loved with a blanket. I broke down crying, and unable to speak except to say,
"My cats are getting burned alive, and my cats are dead."
Finally, I saw my neighbor give Zette a blanket. Don did no attempts at rescuing except for Zuess that I saw. He just stood with Zette. Grandma finally had a blanket.
I grabbed a funky coat from the free clothes rack that we had out for our ministry. I had a blanket or coat over my head, and all I could do was say over and over to everyone that I saw “My cats are dying, they are burning alive.” I wandered all over the street, saying those words to anyone who asked me what was going on.
I saw Dina, Wes’ sister coming down the road. I walked up to meet her, and all I could say was “My cats are dying, they are burning alive.” I walked around some more, feeling hopeless, knowing that my cats were burning up.
Suddenly Wes ran by, and told me that he and David got all of the dogs safe. He told me that nothing could be done about the cats in Zette and Don’s bedroom.
The ambulance took Grandma to the hospital, so I didn’t have to worry about her any longer. Grandma LaRose was in the hospital from the smoke inhalation and developed pnumonia, until the 29th, of December 2002. LaRose never really recovered from this, and lost her ability to walk, breathe, and was hospitalized many times because of pnumonia and congestive heart failure that she died on March 17, of 2004. LaRose was put into our care on her request, and Social Workers, and Nurses approval and red tape. LaRose became my grandma, and I will bring this forward to have justice for a woman that had no justice when all three of her properties were destroyed, and all agencies in Butte County turned their heads while she suffered and died hoping for justice for all the abuses done to her by her daughter Susan Marie Mello (Overstreet Etter), for so many years.
Susan Overstreet/Etter was also hospitalized from the smoke inhalation problems, and even had blood clots from falling against the banister.
Now, can you imagine that these two individual's were not involved in the rescuing of pets, or anything else, and they were hospitalized. Wesley Peden, my two children David and Kristy Lopez, and I, Pamela Mulaskey, were not even looked at medically, and when we did finally get medical attention, did not get treated for the many symptoms, and sickness we have had since the fire in 2002. My children are better, but Wes and I still are sick from it, and now it is 2005, and nearing the end of the year.
The fire trucks were still just in the road, and not putting water on the fire! I couldn’t believe it.
Wes yelled at me to do something instead of just standing there doing nothing, and help him rescue Bubba, Lovie, and the Iguana. I broke more. I snapped out of it when my children David and Kristy ran by, and they were going to help. We ran together through the mud and rain up the back stairs again. I had several neighbors with us too, but I can’t remember who they were. Wes came running up, and we all stood there for a moment trying to figure out what we were going to do.
Wes decided to try to open the kitchen window. He was taller than the rest of us. He got the window open, and we gave him a boost up into the kitchen through the window. He flung the computer, and everything else that was on the kitchen table onto the floor. Smoke was billowing out the window. Wes got inside, and told me he was going to get Bubba. I could no longer see his face six inches into the room. I thought Wes was going to die for sure.
Wes closed the front door where the fire and smoke was coming through because the front porch was fully engulfed if fire. Then, he went to the other kitchen window where he saw a fireman standing each time the light from the fire trucks hit him. Wes opened the window, and said,
"Hey!"
The fireman standing about for the last half hour doing nothing stared at him. Wes, opened the window in the kitchen facing the 4925 Lincoln Blvd. property where the mobile was burning to the ground, and said,
"If you do not put water on this fire right now, you will be pulling out a dead body." Wes shut the window.
This is when the fire hoses were hooked up, and in less than five minutes the fire that was on LaRoses porch burning out of control was put out.
Wes came running back to the window after this and said that "Bubba was not in the house."
He had Igi, and he handed him to me through the window. I had never been so happy to see our five foot lizard in my life. I ran with him, and either handed him to someone, or put him in the front of the truck.
I ran back to Grandma’s back porch, and Wes had Lovie. I couldn’t believe that he rescued her because she was in Grandma’s bedroom, and I thought for sure it was mostly burned up by now. I don’t even know how he found her with all of the smoke in the house.
Wes was able to open the back door enough to get Kristy's dog Skipper out, and a bunch of us moved the washing machine away from the door enough that he could go out, and he was led to the truck with the rest of the animals.
Wes climbed back out the kitchen window, and we went to the truck to check which animals made it, and which ones didn’t.
On my way to walking in the front to see Zette (Susan Overstreet/Etter,) Glenn (Rabbit)gave me a big hug, and was kind. I was suspicious of everyone at the moment because I knew that the fire had to have been set because of where the fire started. I thought that he was putting on an act of genuine affection after the way I was treated when he was in the alley. I knew that he had heard me, when I yelled to call 911, and I was ignored.
I checked Zette, and she was still rocking and crying. Suddenly the Red Cross was there. I started to answer questions for the man from the Red Cross while Zette was taken down to Elizabeths house.
Ken Doty, who was the next door neighbor to Wes, had cups of coffee for us, and that made me cry because of his kindness.
I walked down to Elizabeth Jensen's house to speak with the Red Cross. They asked about clothes etc. I told them that I was the only one to still have clothes because my room at Grandma’s didn’t burn at all. My shoes did burn up in the other house though, and I didn’t have another pair, so I accepted a voucher for shoes.
We were given vouchers for a motel stay, and Zette was really sick.We had to force her to go to the hospital by calling an ambulance. Susan Overstreet/Etter stayed in the hospital for about five days.
My daughter Kristy was at Elizabeth Jensen's house, and Kristy had Butter Bean, one of our cats. She was getting the burned plastic off of his face. She trimmed the burned fur, and did her best to save our cat Butter Bean, who came running out of the flames on fire with the plastic bag melted over his face. Even though the vet took Butter Bean in during the next two days for free, Butter Bean died from the infection that set in, and pneumonia.
After Susan Overstreet/Etter was taken to the hospital, the kids, Wes, and I went to Ken Doty’s house on Helman Street next to Wes’ house. Ken got us pillows, blankets, coffee, dry clothes, and we were grateful.
I started smoking cigarettes that night in Ken’s house after having quit for three years. We had to figure out what to do with the animals. Wes, the kids, and I left to go figure it out.
We put all of the dogs into Irwin Bushes empty house after he was killed in an automobile accident, and we decided to put them all in a room out on the porch. Irwin had the empty house across the street on Lincoln Blvd. where we had the fire, so we didn't have far to go with them. We put all of the cats that we had in the laundry room.
Blue, our Russian Blue cat had been badly burned also. We found him dead when we went to check on him the next day.
The birds, rats, and iguana all stayed at Irwin’s for now as well in cages, and the dogs were in his fenced yard for the time being. We gathered up blankets and pillows, and other things that we needed , and brought them to Wes’ house.
Mathew Virden, the other next door neighbor to Wes, brought us some blankets also. We finally made it the motel room at about six a.m.
Coming......... The Fire Pictures with captions.
Coming......... The Investigation