Tampa Tribune
TAMPA, Fla. — The house where three people died in a fire this week is like many of the surrounding homes in the East Tampa neighborhood: Small, without working fire alarms and secured by old-fashioned burglar bars that can prevent anyone inside from getting out.
Tuesday morning, that combination proved fatal for a 61-year-old woman and two of her grandchildren, ages 3 and 8. On Wednesday, firefighters, fire officials and the American Red Cross converged on the neighborhood in an effort to make sure such a tragedy never happens again.
Officials from Tampa Fire Rescue, Hillsborough Fire Rescue and the American Red Cross brought with them free smoke detectors and lessons on fire safety, including the precautions that need to be taken if a home is outfitted with burglar bars.
The coalition of firefighters and Red Cross members met at 4:30 p.m. on North 39th Street and East Paris Street. They walked door-to-door through the neighborhood, installing 171 smoke detectors in 61 homes. Smoke detectors were scarce throughout the neighborhood, Tampa Fire Marshal Milt Jenkins said, and many of the ones that did exist didn’t work or didn’t have working batteries.
Jenkins said he began driving around the neighborhood early Wednesday when a house with panic-release burglar bars caught his eye. After he knocked on the door, the woman who lives there invited him inside to inspect the smoke detectors.
“Not a one had a battery,” Jenkins said. “She said, ‘I took the battery out and put it in my radio.’”
The new smoke detectors, Jenkins said, have a 10-year lifespan with sealed battery compartments to prevent tampering.
Jenkins said he talked to about five people from the neighborhood Tuesday night, none of whom had smoke detectors or fire extinguishers in their home.
“The people I talked to that did have burglar bars -- none of them had the quick-release devices,” he said.
Burglar bars without a quick-release option cover the windows and front door of the house at 3720 E. Paris St. where Reshard Ashley, 8, Emjay Jackson, 3, and Sheryl James, 61, died Tuesday morning. Romello Jackson, 8, was taken to Tampa General Hospital in critical condition.
Television stations WTSP - Channel 10 and WFTS - Channel 28 reported Wednesday night that Romello Jackson had died, but the Tribune was unable to confirm that information.
Fire officials said the blaze started at an overloaded power strip in the northeast bedroom where an air conditioner’s power cord had been spliced from a three-pronged plug to a two-pronged plug.
Jenkins said old-style metal burglar bars serve their purpose of keeping out intruders but come with a serious fire risk because they need to be cut or pried off the wall, increasing the likelihood someone could be trapped inside.
“I think society has come to realize that the way they were installed in years past was not necessarily safe in the event there was an emergency,” Jenkins said. “So they came up and developed quick-release devices on the inside.”
To retrofit existing burglar bars, Jenkins said, the side bars are cut off and a bar with a quick-release option is installed on the inside.
Hector Noyas, a fire detective with the state Fire Marshal’s office, said there are multiple factors to consider when determing whether someone would have survived a fire, such as if they were awake when the fire began. It’s hard to solely blame the burglar bars for the deaths, but they probably contributed, he said.
“Just about any fire department is going to tell you putting bars on the windows is a dangerous thing to do,” Noyas said.
He said the one certainty is that a smoke detector would have increased the chances of survival.
“It really is a less expensive form of insurance,” Noyas said.
According to the National Fire Protection Association, from 2007 to 2011, three of every five home fire deaths resulted from the lack of working smoke alarms.
A funeral for the fire victims is planned for Saturday, Sept. 12, but a specific time and place has not been set, said Alicia Fletcher, whose grandfather, Clarence Fletcher, owns the Paris Steet house.
The bodies are being held at Ray Williams Funeral Home. Family members said donations to help with the funeral can be sent to the funeral home.
Janet McGuire of the Red Cross said people in the community were appreciative of the free smoke alarms and information about fire safety.
“It hits home for everybody in the community, not just here on this street,” she said. “It’s something that chldren are involved in; that really hurts.”
Copyright 2015 Tampa Tribune
All Rights Reserved