Fire Marshal Seeks Complaint in Fatal Blaze : House Fire: Owner of Encinitas home could be fined $400 for not installing smoke detectors, which could have alerted two victims to the presence of flames.

Encinitas Fire Marshal Ron McCarver said Tuesday that he will ask the district attorney’s office to file a misdemeanor complaint against the owner of a home that burned Friday, killing two children, because the dwelling lacked smoke detectors.

The offense carries a $400 fine--$200 for each missing smoke detector in the two-unit dwelling.

McCarver said the complaint could add credence to a possible lawsuit against the property owner, should one be filed by the mothers of the two victims.

McCarver was still trying to learn the owner’s identity Tuesday.

Friday’s blaze in the 800 block of Orpheus Avenue, in Leucadia, killed 2-year-old Monife Meyers and 15-year-old Ayikwei Scruggs, who were cousins. Their mothers, who are sisters, had lived in the 60-year-old home for two months and sub-rented an upstairs bedroom to 21-year-old Linda Fletcher.

A third child, Ayida Aganaku, 10, was pulled to safety by two passing California Highway Patrol officers, and Fletcher ran to safety after hearing the two officers’ yells of warning.

The fire was blamed on faulty electrical wiring.

McCarver said that, although the upstairs had caught fire about 12 years ago for reasons he could not now determine, there were no complaints on file with the city or county indicating any building code violations.

He said it would have been unlikely that an inspection of the dwelling by his office would have discovered the faulty electrical wiring, but an electrician might have detected a problem.

Officials speculated that, had the dwelling been equipped with smoke detectors, the victims might have been awakened in time to escape the blaze.

The law requires that any dwelling that changes hands after Jan. 1, 1987, be equipped with smoke detectors.

This particular dwelling, McCarver said, was sold last summer from its previous long-term owner to a group of investors who intended to demolish the building and build a commercial business there. But their plans got waylaid, and the owners decided to rent the dwelling in the meantime.

The dwelling fetched $1,000 a month in rental payments.

McCarver said his frustration Tuesday was in identifying the current owner. Because the ownership is so confusing, he said, the city has retained a title search company to determine ownership. But that search, he said, led only to the name of an investment group with no phone number or address “and we’re trying to track down who was at least paying the water bills on the property, so maybe we can find the owners that way.”