SOUTH LOS ANGELES : 3 Children, Trapped by Burglar Bars, Injured in Fire
Three children were critically injured in a fire at an apartment Friday night, the second blaze in a week in which residents of the area were trapped by so-called “burglar bars,” authorities said.
Los Angeles police officers and firefighters had to rip the bars off one of the front windows to rescue the children, Sgt. Stephen Faulk said.
The blaze broke out at 7:45 p.m. and was doused within 20 minutes, but a 2-year-old girl suffered third-degree burns and a 5-month-old boy and 5-year-old boy suffered smoke inhalation, city Fire Department spokesman Mike Little said. The unidentified children were in critical condition at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.
On Wednesday, a family of four died in a fire in a home that also had steel burglar bars on the windows. The city building code requires that security bars in any sleeping room be operable from the inside or have a quick-release device.
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