Mom on EMT Responded to House Fire, Found Daughter Among Victims Who Died

After a devastating house fire broke out during a birthday party in Pennsylvania, EMT Azelyn Arenas rushed to the scene with her crew. When they arrived, she learned that her 4-year-old daughter Veyda Pereyra was one of the five victims who died. 

“I’ve never seen such a tragedy,” Gregg Smith, executive director of First Aid & Safety Patrol, told NBC affiliate WGAL of the deadly fire in Lebanon on Sunday, Sept. 28. “When you take an employee, a first responder, that has to respond to their own child, words can’t describe the nightmare scenario this truly is.”

That Sunday, 73-year-old Josefina Estevez was watching the little girl while Arenas was at work, the outlet reported. By 8:43 a.m. local time, the Lebanon Fire Department was dispatched to a structural fire at 815 Church Street, only to find the first and second floors of the building “fully engulfed, with flames visible from the windows,” the City of Lebanon said in a statement later that day.

Ten people were trapped inside, several of whom were attending a birthday party. 

The fire was so severe that first responders called for backup from neighboring agencies, even as they managed to recover three people, who were then transported to a local hospital.

Conditions inside the building “deteriorated,” forcing firefighters to leave and fight the flames from the outside, according to the city’s statement. They were able to re-enter the building and extricate “two additional victims,” officials said.

“With deep regret, I must report that four victims have passed away, one remains in critical condition, and one is in stable condition,” the city’s statement noted. “The remaining four occupants escaped with minor injuries.”

For First Aid & Safety Patrol, it was a day when the “unimaginable happened to one of our own,” the agency said in a Facebook post. 

Arenas was on duty staffing an ambulance in the city that morning when reports came in of people trapped inside a building that was on fire. 

“She and her crew responded immediately,” First Aid & Safety Patrol said in their post. “Upon arrival, units encountered multiple patients. Among them was Azelyn’s four-year-old daughter, Veyda.”

Despite attempts to save the girl, “Veyda did not survive her injuries,” the agency said. Her caretaker, Estevez, also died in the fire, as did 1-year-old Amarri Morris Rodriguez and 17-year-old Jaeden Nunez, the Lebanon County Coroner’s Office told NBC affiliate WGAL. 

Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello announced the identity of the fifth victim as 23-year-old Tailing Nunez. Tailing was hospitalized in critical condition after the blaze, according to the mayor.

In its initial statement, the City of Lebanon said that the fire was caused by an electrical outlet in the living room of the first floor and was “ruled accidental in nature.” An investigation is ongoing. 

The City of Lebanon, the Lebanon Fire Department, the Lebanon County Coroner’s Office and the little girl’s family did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.

As she grieves for her daughter, Arenas organized a GoFundMe for her “precious angel baby.”

“She lost her life in a tragic fire & we are all completely shattered,” Arenas wrote, also speaking on the behalf of Veyda’s dad. “She is the light in every room, our baby, our only child, & we’ll forever miss her.”

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In an emotional plea, the First Aid & Safety Patrol asked the community for donations to support the EMT and her family. 

“There are no words to capture the pain of losing a child, and no words to describe the heartbreak of being an emergency responder faced with your own child as a victim,” the organization wrote on Facebook. “We grieve for this precious child, for Azelyn and her family, and for all of our EMS providers who are hurting.”