A boy, 2, wouldn't leave his mom's side Monday, and his sister, 3, was telling her mom to "close the doors so the fire wouldn't get in," their mom, Vickie Reule, 26, of Bismarck, related.

"They're traumatized,"Reule told the Tribune on Monday.

An early Sunday morning fire - that started in the kitchen and destroyed their singlewide mobile home in Bismarck - is over. But the impacts aren't.

The family, which owned the mobile home at 503 Haycreek Court, also lost most of their possessions, a pet bunny and much of the horse equipment, saddles, bridles and halters, that Reule used when she was still a competitive barrel racer.

Abenefit fund has been set up at Dakota Community Bank for Reule, a single mother of four children, ages 2, 3, 6 and 7, said Reule's sister, Fae Glass of Bismarck.

"She needs some support to get back on her feet,"Glass said.

Reule was supposed to have started a new job Monday as a cashier at Jay's Pawn Shop at 1037 E. Interstate Ave., but her new boss has told her to take as much time as she needs, Reule said.

Reule told the Tribune on Monday that her two oldest children - Vanessa Bailey, 7, a second-grader at Miller Elementary School, and Cole Reule, 6, a kindergartner at Miller - were at their grandparents' rural home when the fire occurred.

Vickie Reule was asleep in a bedroom with the two youngest children and the door closed. Her boyfriend, Larry Bailey, also was in the mobile home and was the one that noticed the smoke smell.

"Thank God for him," Reule said.

Bailey, 27, father of her two oldest children, got up to investigate the smell and discovered smoke and flames in the kitchen area and screamed for everyone to get out. Reule called 911 on a cell phone.

"He was trying to shove us out of the (bedroom) window,"Reule said.

She said they did get out through the window. Tyler, 2, was just in a T-shirt and diaper. No one had shoes on. But everyone got out uninjured.

The Bismarck Fire Department got the call at 3:59 a.m. and arrived at 4:06 a.m., said Kermit Schaefer, assistant chief of operations.

He said two firefighters went in through the front door and were "able to extinguish it very rapidly … within a matter of a couple minutes."

Schaefer said the mobile home appears to be a total loss.

The bulk of the fire was in the kitchen area, but heat spread throughout the rest of the home, and there is heat and smoke damage throughout, he said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Reule said the family for the time being is living with her boyfriend in a camper at his father's farm north of Bismarck.

She said she is thankful for her neighbors who brought blankets and shoes for the family after they escaped from the home. And she's thankful to the American Red Cross for help in providing assistance so she can buy diapers, shoes and coats and other items.

Anyone wanting to help the family can send donations to the Vickie Reule Benefit Fund at Dakota Community Bank, 1727 State St., Bismarck, N.D. 58501.

For more information, call the bank at 255-9000.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)