Smoke Detector Remains in Box as Fire Kills Four

Less than an hour after a family birthday and baptismal party had ended, a fire broke out in a Montebello house early Sunday, killing three girls and a young woman and injuring two other girls and the parents of some of the victims.

The house did not have a smoke detector in use, although the owners had purchased one--called “Family Gard”--which firefighters found still in the box in a front hall closet. It was one of the few possessions undamaged by the intense blaze, described by a Montebello fire official as an “inferno.”

“We would have saved lives had they used the smoke detector,” Battalion Chief Roy Richardson said. “It’s pathetic.”

The fire erupted about 4:20 a.m. in the three-bedroom house of Joseph and Gloria Medina at 512 W. Walnut Ave.

Aida Borunda 18, Gloria Medina’s daughter from an earlier marriage; Danielle Medina, 6, and Racquel Lopez, 6, a family friend, all were pronounced dead at two hospitals. Authorities said they died from smoke inhalation.

Racquel Medina, 7, died of the same cause after attempts to resuscitate her at Beverly Hospital in Montebello were unsuccessful.

Joi Medina, 4, was in critical condition late Sunday at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, where she was being treated for smoke inhalation and burns. Mandie Lopez, 10, a family friend, was being treated at Long Beach Memorial Hospital for burns and damage to her lungs caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Both Joseph Medina and his wife were being treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns at Beverly Hospital.

Authorities were alerted by a neighbor, Donna Sanchez, who said she heard breaking windows and called the 911 emergency number. She awoke her family and ran outside.

Sanchez said she saw Joseph Medina, 34, carrying his wife, who is 38, out one of the front windows. “We wrapped her in a car cover. She started screaming ‘My kids,’ ” Sanchez said. Medina tried to re-enter the house and had to be restrained by neighbors, she said.

Crews from the Montebello Fire Department controlled the flames, and firefighters entered the house through windows looking for survivors.

Steve Waroff, a 16-year veteran of the Montebello Fire Department, was one of the first firefighters inside.

“You . . . couldn’t see your hand in front of your face,” he said. “We got on our hands and knees and crawled and started looking for people. We found one kid on the floor outside a crib.” In all, four other children and a teen-ager were carried from the home.

“None of them were breathing,” Richardson said. Paramedics tried to resuscitate the victims and then took them to hospitals.

Two firefighters and a policeman suffered minor injuries and smoke inhalation when they pulled victims from the house, Montebello Fire Chief Robert King said.

A long-time family friend, Felix Marquez, accompanied Gloria Medina to the hospital. “After she got composed at the hospital, she looked at me with the blankest eyes I’ve ever seen. . . . Then she said, ‘I told Joey to put the smoke alarm system in.’ ”

After seeing his brother at Beverly Hospital, Mario Medina, 31, said Joseph was distraught and in a state of disbelief. “. . . He feels it’s all his fault because he didn’t get back in there (the house),” he said. “If he went back in there, he’d be dead.”

Aluminum Door Melted

Battalion Chief Richardson said, “It must have been 1,500 to 1,600 degrees” in the house. “An aluminum door in the house melted and that happens at 1,100 degrees,” he said.

Fire Inspector Robert West said the cause of the fire is still being investigated, and he does not expect to have a definite determination until Wednesday. The investigation appeared to focus on either a spark from the living room fireplace or an electrical problem.

Guests at the party said a fire was burning in the fireplace when they left the house at 3:30 a.m. Firefighters said that when they entered the house the fire was still burning. When a reporter toured the house at 10 a.m., the fireplace had a screen in front of it, but a stack of burned magazines sat near the fireplace.

West said the fire spread quickly because the living room had an open-beam ceiling and the walls were made of 3/4-inch plywood paneling with no dry-wall backing.

The birthday party and baptismal celebration was for the Medinas’ youngest child--Jacob, 1.

Honoree Spared

In the backyard was a picnic table with paper plates of uneaten cake and empty beer cans, a hobby horse, and tacked to a fence, a “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” game. Jacob was spared. His grandmother, Eva Jauquez, had taken him to her house hours before the party broke up.

For two of the victims, Racquel and Mandie Lopez, Saturday night was the first time they had stayed overnight at a friend’s house, according to their parents, Racheal and Armando, who were interviewed at Long Beach Memorial Hospital. Their son Tommy had served as the disc jockey at the party.

“It’s so hard to believe something like this happened,” Racheal Lopez said. The parents had gone to Pico Rivera Community Hospital to check on the condition of their daughter Racquel, only to be told she was dead. “We had to identify her,” Mrs. Lopez said. “It didn’t even look like her.”

Long-time friends of the Medinas, Monica and Art Chairez, said they were the last people to leave the party, and there was no sign of any problem then.

They said that a “disc jockey system” that had been set up to play dance music on the edge of the patio had been disconnected shortly after midnight after police had come to the house in response to a complaint from a neighbor about noise.

Childhood Friends

“He’s been my friend for 20 years,” Chairez said of Joseph Medina. “We grew up in East L.A.”

Chairez said they arrived at the Medina house about 7 p.m. and that perhaps 50 people attended the party. “They really went all out,” he said of the party.

The family had lived in the house for about five years, said Jesse Marquez, who lives next door. Medina had worked as tree-trimmer until recently when he got into the carpentry business, his brother Mario said. Gloria Medina is a registered nurse.

Firefighter Steve Waroff, president of the Montebello Firemen’s Assn., said the group would set up a fund to help the family and said anyone interested in contributing should call (213) 722-7804.

Battalion Chief Bob Fager said the city has an ordinance requiring that all new office buildings and residential structures of two units or more have smoke detectors. He also said that any new single-family home or a house undergoing renovation that exceeds 25% of its value must have a smoke detector.