Smoke Inhalation Kills Boy Trapped by Barred Windows

A 12-year-old Los Angeles boy who was trapped in a bedroom with iron bars on the windows died of smoke inhalation and his twin brother suffered first-degree burns when fire engulfed their home early Saturday, authorities said.

Jose Hernandez died in a converted garage in the 6000 block of Converse Avenue, where he lived with his three brothers, sister and mother in the Florence area. The small house did not have smoke alarms or safety latches for any of the windows with security bars, two factors that contributed to the boy’s death, according to Inspector Mark Savage of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Jose’s twin, Ismael, suffered first- and second-degree burns on his face and hands before he and brothers Jaime, 14, and Omar, 7, escaped the 3 a.m. blaze out the front door of the home, according to witnesses and fire officials. The two other boys were not injured. Their mother was not home at the time of the fire and their sister, Melissa Mercado, 11, was spending the night next door, neighbors said.

Ismael Hernandez was in guarded condition at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived after the three boys had escaped, and neighbors told them that they heard screaming in the back room, authorities said.

Deputy Paul Doeve pried off the wrought-iron bars covering the back window with his hands, but as his partner Deputy Joe Nicassio tried to enter the fiery room, he burned the side of his face.

Deputies retreated until firefighters arrived seconds later. Twenty-five county firefighters extinguished the blaze in 15 minutes.

By daylight, neighbors were still gathered outside, holding their children a little tighter.

“We used to walk home together,” said a tearful Rosalina Torres, 13, who went to Edison Junior High School with the Hernandez boys and lives across the street. “(Jose) was a really nice boy.”