Update: Fountain Fire Releases Cause, Details On Deadly Blaze

Investigators are releasing new information about a mobile home fire in Fountain that killed 45-year-old Joey Nauta, a husband and father of two.

The fire gutted the home in the 500 block of Windsor Lane at the Crest Mobile Estates, damaging three nearby units and destroying two cars. In all, three families were affected.

According Fountain Fire Chief Darin Anstine, the fire was caused by an electrical outlet that was overloaded with Christmas lights. Their investigation revealed that a section of the lights on the Christmas tree had been sparking the evening before the fire.

Michelle Harrison, the former manager of the mobile home park and a family friend, said she was at the home Sunday evening until around 9 p.m. Harrison says they spent the evening wrapping Christmas presents and placing them under the tree.

Investigators said the fire started at about 2 a.m. They said the family escaped out of a back door of the house into an area that was fenced in by a locked gate. They said Joey Nauta ran back in the house to get his wife’s purse with the keys to the gate. That’s when the roof of the house collapsed.

Minnie and Larry Gonzalez, a couple returning home from vacation, arrived in the mobile home park just as the fire started. They ran door-to-door alerting neighbors so they could get out of their homes before the fire spread. They said the fire was too intense to attempt a rescue of Nauta, and everyone in the mobile home park has been devastated by what happened/

The Nauta family lost everything they owned and do not have home insurance. An additional family suffered a loss of household items and is in need as well.

The park management company, Sunflower management, is working to collect donations for the families who lost homes in the fire, said Harrison. Sunflower is located at 818 South Tejon St. in Colorado Springs, Harrison said.

The children attend Aragon Elementary School in Fountain.

The City of Fountain Fire Department is also accepting donations of anything to help the family. Any donation: food, money, clothing, appliances and house wares can be made at any Fountain Fire Station.