Neighbors Recount Futile Effort to Save Fire Victims

They were hinged so they could swing open. They had a latch that could be unlocked from the inside.

But the security bars on an East Los Angeles home could not be opened in time to save two women and a 4-year-old boy who were killed Friday evening by a fire that whipped through their one-bedroom bungalow.

“Their clothes were on fire, their hair was on fire. They were running around screaming,” said neighbor Leonard Rocha. “They panicked--they didn’t know what to do.”

Rocha and another neighbor frantically yanked at the bars and managed to rip them and their hinges from the window frame at the rear of the bungalow in the 900 block of South Bonnie Beach Place.

However it was too late to rescue anyone through flames that suddenly began billowing through the window.

Los Angeles County fire investigators said Friday that the three victims--all members of the same family--died after being trapped inside by the window bars and deadbolt locks on the tiny home’s doors.

A sheriff’s official identified two of the victims as 3-year-old Jovanni Casarez and 26-year-old Graciela Velasquez. The third victim was a female, but her name was not available.

A 5-year-old, identified by the official as Jonathan Morales, survived the flames and was hospitalized Friday in critical condition, authorities said.

Neighbors living across an alley behind the burning house reported the fire at 6:07 p.m. Those in a main house in front of the blazing structure had been unaware of the fire, officials said.

The first of the 28 firefighters who arrived and saw fire erupting from the rear dwelling didn’t think anyone was inside the locked stucco structure, fire officials said.

But after chopping their way inside, firefighters discovered a child lying on the floor of the smoke-filled bedroom.

A firefighter who thought he heard the young boy gasp for breath ran outside with him, said fire Battalion Chief Roger Wilhelm. Two Fire Department paramedics rushed the boy to a nearby hospital, performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation all the way in an attempt to save him, Wilhelm said.

Both children and one of the women were found in the bedroom area near the barred window that Rocha struggled with. The body of the other woman was found near the front door, authorities said.

On Friday, fire investigators were searching for the cause of the blaze, which they said apparently started in the living room area. They said there were no smoke detectors in the home.

Investigators said the security bars lacked the quick-release locks required of newly installed bars. The bedroom window twist latch was located on the side of the window, midway up from the floor.

That meant that the latch could have been obscured by smoke, said fire inspector Roland Sprewell. Latches should be located as close as possible to the floor, where air is clearer, he said.

In the last 18 months, at least four other deaths in Los Angeles County have been blamed on security bars without quick-release mechanisms, authorities said.

Wilhelm said firefighters sent to Friday’s blaze received counseling from a department psychologist after they returned to their stations.

But the 21-year-old Rocha, a self-employed electrician, struggled on his own.

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” he said. “This morning I went to church to say a prayer for that family.”

He said he didn’t expect to be a witness to the tragedy as he tried to rescue the victims.

“When they stopped screaming--well, it’s something I’ll never forget.”