House Fire Kills Boy, 5, Trapped in Bedroom

A pile of charred Christmas gifts lay on the doorstep of a Compton home Wednesday, the morning after a fire killed a 5-year-old boy who was trapped in a bedroom where the window had been nailed shut to prevent burglaries.

Investigators have not identified the origin of the blaze, but said it was not caused by the holiday lights that were strung around the Christmas tree, throughout the living room, and on the house’s exterior and roof.

The fire started about 10 p.m. Tuesday in the tiny brick house on North Sloan Avenue that Annie Manning, 52, shared with her nephew, James Allen, 14, and niece, Rochelle Allen, 12.

Her grandson, Joseph Manning, who usually lived elsewhere in Compton, was visiting during the holiday season. Relatives said the youngster had been hustled out of the house after the fire started, but during the confusion ran back into a bedroom, where the nailed window delayed rescue efforts. He died of smoke inhalation, authorities said; the others were not injured.

Choking back tears, the boy’s grandmother Wednesday remembered Joseph as sweet and loving.

His favorite toy, she said, was a silver scooter he got for his 5th birthday, six weeks ago. When he wasn’t inside playing video games, he was cruising the neighborhood on his scooter.

Last weekend, Joseph tagged along with Manning as she finished her Christmas shopping. He picked out gifts for his parents and Manning paid for them.

“He bought his father some cologne and his mother some perfume,” Manning said. “He wrapped it himself and put it under the tree.”

Under the tree for Joseph, Manning had wrapped a remote-control car, a karaoke machine and a battery-operated piano. Those gifts were destroyed in the fire.

“He was always hugging on me and telling me he never wanted to leave me,” she said. “And I said I never wanted to leave him.”

The three-bedroom rental house, tucked behind another at the end of a driveway, was gutted. Furniture, shredded clothing and burned Christmas presents were on the ground in front of the house Wednesday. James Allen walked through, looking for anything to salvage.

“Everything is ruined,” he said. “Burnt. Gone.”

James recalled the chaos of the night before without emotion. He said he was drifting off to sleep when his sister’s cries woke him. He opened his bedroom door to see the Christmas tree ablaze, swaying as flames consumed its branches. The sofa and the love seat were on fire too, he said.

“All I saw was flames,” James said.

He saw his aunt standing nearby. “Little Joe” was right beside her.

“She pushed him outside,” James said. “I guess he followed her back into the house. . . . He was so scared he went in my room and closed the door.”

James ran outside to try to get to the boy through his bedroom window. “But,” he said, “I forgot I nailed my window down because there are a lot of thieves around here.”

Meanwhile, next-door neighbor Rommell Bates, 39, pried the iron security gates off the windows of a front bedroom in search of the boy. Flames and smoke pushed him out of the room, though.

“It went up so quick, I was in shock,” Bates said.

By then, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies had arrived. Three deputies who fought their way into the house suffered smoke inhalation. One deputy eventually found the boy and carried his body from the house, wrapped in a blanket.

Other than eliminating the Christmas lights as a cause, Compton officials declined to speculate on how the blaze started. Frank Wheaton, a city spokesman, said the fire started below the love seat or couch in the living room.

Calling the fire a tragedy, Wheaton said the city would try to help the family.