Father, Son Badly Burned in Fire

About a month after a Cypress family turned off a smoke detector because of an annoying chirping sound--a sign that a new battery was needed--fire destroyed its three-bedroom condominium early Monday morning, severely burning a 2-year-old boy and his father.

The blaze on Larwin Avenue was set by the toddler, who was playing with a lighter in an unoccupied bedroom, fire investigators said. The family was unavailable for comment.

A working smoke detector might have meant saving some of the structure, officials said, or preventing injury. It “would have gotten them out of the home much, much sooner,” said Dennis Shell, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority. “They are lucky they’re not dead.”

Fire officials and witnesses said one of Donald and Jacqui Wilson’s five children woke about 2 a.m. to the sound of windows shattering from intense heat.

The 22-year-old daughter “looked down the hall and saw a fireball,” Shell said.

By the time 55 firefighters from four cities extinguished the fire, Shell said damage to the home, including contents, totaled about $180,000. The fire also caused smoke damage to neighboring units in Cypress Tanglewood, a community of attached townhomes near Ball Road and Denni Street.

According to fire investigators, the Wilson family escaped the home through windows and doors. But once outside, Donald Wilson, 53, realized his son, Ian, was still inside. When he ran into the burning house, he found his son in the living room, fire officials said.

The boy and his father suffered second- and third-degree burns--Ian on his arms and Donald on his knees, feet and left hand. Donald also suffered from smoke inhalation. Jacqui Wilson, 42, followed her husband inside the house but was not burned.

Father and son were listed in fair condition Monday evening at the burn unit of UCI Medical Center in Orange. Second-degree burns blister the top layer of skin and can heal without scarring. Third degree burns destroy all the skin layers and can result in scars.

Jacqui Wilson was treated for smoke inhalation and released. The rest of the family was uninjured.

For the six minutes it took for firefighters to arrive at the blaze, anxious neighbors watched flames and embers fly toward their homes.

“The fire department didn’t take too long, but it was the longest six minutes of my life,” said Jonathan Nagel, 35, who lives two doors from the Wilson home. “I thought we all were going to lose everything.”

Fire experts said disconnected smoke detectors are a common problem. By design, most smoke detectors chirp loudly when batteries need to be replaced.

But people often are put off or confused by the sound and disconnect the device--and then forget about it, said Nick Mordovanec, service manager for Orange County Fire Protection, a Garden Grove business that installs sprinkler systems.

“In our industry, you find complacency constantly,” Mordovanec said. “In businesses, too. It’s a real ‘I’ve-never-had-a-fire-in-20-years, and-it-can’t-happen-to-me’ attitude, and that’s dangerous. Never ever disconnect the smoke detector. . . . If it goes off in your bedroom when you are cooking, for example, just close the door.”

Mordovanec said people should change detector batteries once a year, on a date that’s easy to remember, such as the switch to or from Daylight Savings Time.