Trial by Fire Proves That Security Bars Can Be a Trap

State and local officials warned Tuesday that window bars that are used to keep out criminals can pose a danger during a fire, and they set an abandoned building ablaze to emphasize their point.

Using an empty apartment house in the City Heights area, they demonstrated how much faster a person can escape through a window when it is equipped with a device that allows the bars to pop open with the pull of a cable.

In one demonstration, a fire official quickly jumped through one of the specially equipped windows in the burning building. In another, firefighters sawed through a set of non-releasable bars to reach the “victim,” which took about a minute. When the time it takes fire crews to arrive at the scene is figured in, officials said, the difference becomes crucial.

As of Jan. 1, 1990, the officials noted, all security bars and doors must have some kind of release system that can be used easily in an emergency.

“Ten years ago, there were very few bars on homes,” said James F. McMullen, state fire marshal chief. “But now they are proliferating throughout California.

“People are concerned with crime, and they don’t think they are jailing themselves in,” he said, but he added that deaths resulting from non-releasable doors or windows have been increasing nationwide.

Bedrooms with multiple barred windows are required to have one that can be opened with a single movement, officials said, and all barred doors to a house are required to have a system that allows the door to open quickly, in a way that a person who is not familiar with the house can comprehend easily during an emergency.

The San Diego Fire Department is calling for voluntary compliance with the regulation, according to Capt. Al Macdonald. “We don’t have the personnel to inspect every single-family home,” he said.

People living in apartments or rented homes can notify local fire authorities if landlords are not complying with the regulation, McMullen said. Officials will inspect the bars and issue warnings, and the landlords may be subject to fines, he said.

Last March, a 38-year-old Serra Mesa man bled to death after he tried to release the bars on his bedroom window during a fire. Steve Carl Ransom had become disoriented in the smoke and ended up breaking the window and cutting an arterie in his arm, Macdonald said.