WASILLA -- The sudden death of a 6-year-old boy in a Wasilla house fire Wednesday morning has left his family stunned and shaken from Mat-Su to Nome and beyond.
Hayden Martin, who had just celebrated his birthday Oct. 29, was unable to be saved from his father's burning home at 620 Heather Way off Schrock Road. More than 50 firefighters battled the 5 a.m. blaze.
A neighbor saw smoke pouring from the two-story home's roof and ran to help the family. He could get only to the boy's grandmother, Zina J. Joseph, before firefighters arrived.
"The fire was already about 75 percent involved by the time we arrived," said Steve Barenburg, assistant fire chief of the West Lakes Fire Department off Pittman Road. "When we first arrived, the grandmother was sitting in the front entryway and didn't want to leave because she thought her son and grandson were both still inside. Turns out the son wasn't home, but we did go upstairs looking for him. We found the little boy in his bedroom on the far side of the house downstairs. There wasn't anything we could do."
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal.
Hayden's father, John A. Joseph, 32, had stepped out to fetch a part to fix his truck, according to Joseph's father, Tony Joseph, who also lived at the house but was working at the time of fire.
"He's not doing good," the elder Joseph said Thursday of his son as he picked over what was left of the home they had lived in for four years. "We're all broken up about it. We're still in shock."
The family is living in a hotel until other arrangements can be made, he said.
The boy's mother, LaVonne Martin Giang, lives in Nome with his two younger siblings and his stepfather, David Giang.
Hayden had lived with his mom there for the past five years but was living with his father in Wasilla during a one-year custody period, Giang said when reached in Nome Thursday.
She said she doesn't understand why neither his father nor his grandmother called her to tell her what happened.
"I didn't even know about it until a cop knocked on my door at noon that day and told me my son was ... gone," Giang said through tears. "I dropped to my knees. I couldn't believe it. If he'd been with me, this never would have happened."
Giang said she last talked to her son by phone on his birthday.
"I told him I loved him and missed him and hoped he was doing good in school and that things were going to get better for him when he came back home next March."
The boy's grandfather said Thursday he thought Alaska State Troopers were contacting Giang while they were on the scene Wednesday morning.
He said his wife is feeling a lot of guilt over the incident, but he thinks the house itself might be more to blame.
"We're finding more and more odd things about how this house was built," he said. "Like instead of using PVC pipe, a garden hose was used for the water."
By K.T. McKEE
kmckee@adn.com