Need for Smoke Detectors

The accidental deaths of two infants in a house fire at a Huntington Beach day-care home was a tragedy that need not have happened.

Fire officials believe that if the home had a smoke detector, the fire would have been discovered in time for everyone to get out alive.

The house in which the owner was licensed to care for six or fewer children was equipped with a fire extinguisher, but no smoke detector. But the woman who was caring for four children in the house had no time to use the fire extinguisher. She barely had enough time to save the lives of the two of the children she carried from the house.

The life-saving protection of the early-warning smoke detectors has been demonstrated in countless cases and the fire in the Huntington Beach day-care home is but another tragic lesson that should prompt every family to install low-cost, life-saving detectors, whether the law requires them or not. And, in fact, the law should require them in every residence that houses the public, including rentals and day-care homes.

But it has taken a deadly fire, and the loss of two children, to emphasize the senseless inconsistencies that exist in the fire-safety laws governing the state-licensed day-care homes. They must be corrected.

It makes no sense for state licensing laws to give operators of small day-care homes housing six children or fewer the option of having either a fire extinguisher or a smoke detector, when both are required in homes caring for seven or more children. That is particularly true inasmuch as the state building code rightfully requires smoke detectors in all day-care centers. All homes providing day care, regardless of size, should have both safety devices.

Inspection requirements for day-care homes should be uniform too. Some cities inspect only day-care centers that house seven or more children. Others inspect all homes. Money for programs to inspect about 2,400 licensed day-care homes in the county is always in short supply. But saving lives must take precedence over saving money.

In the meantime, the responsibility falls to parents and residents. Children should not be left in any day-care facility that does not have smoke detectors and other safety features. And everyone should install smoke detectors in their homes. If they do, needless deaths can be avoided.