Monday, March 31, 2003 | 11:09 a.m.
Security bars hindered the escape of five people from an early-morning house fire near Vegas and Rancho drives, firefighters and neighbors said.
Three adults and two children were taken to University Medical Center after being trapped in a blaze that began this morning on Luning Way.
A 56-year-old woman and her 36-year-old daughter were in critical condition while a 14-year-old boy was in serious condition and a 7-year-old girl was in fair condition, a hospital spokeswoman said. Another woman was being treated for minor burns.
The fire was reported at 6:26 a.m. Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said neighbors were trying to free the victims when firefighters got to the scene.
"When firefighters arrived, smoke and flames were coming from the house and neighbors were pulling the burglar bars from the house," Szymanski said.
"The bars did have emergency latches to allow them to open from the inside, but they didn't operate," he said. "We had to use saws to cut through the bars."
It appears the blaze started near the front of the house, blocking the front door and forcing the victims to try to get out through the barred windows at the back of the house, Szymanski said.
A woman who lives next door said she heard someone call for help, but thought it was the television. But when she turned the TV down, she heard the yelling again and sent her daughter outside to investigate.
She ran outside found her neighbor trapped behind the security bars shouting for help.
"I was scared for the family," the neighbor said. "Seeing flames coming from the living room, I thought 'This could be terrible."' The neighbor said she pulled on the bars but couldn't get them open. She was running home to get something to break the window when she spotted some construction workers, who asked if anyone inside needed help.
The construction workers used a tool to pry the bars open, and they pulled the woman out of the bedroom as firefighters arrived, the neighbor said.
"(The victim) ran up to the fire engine and told them there more people trapped in the house," Szymanski said. The woman said the people inside were her mother, daughter and nephew.
A neighbor identified the occupants as Janice Auster, her mother Gertrude Adamson, Janice's daughter, Ta'sharie, and nephew, Anthony. They have lived in the home for about 10 years, the neighbor said. A fifth victim, an adult woman, wasn't identified.
The four-bedroom, wood frame one-story house is located in an older tree-lined neighborhood of tract homes.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
In January 2001 a Las Vegas man died in a fire after firefighters and neighbors could not get through security bars in time to save him. The bars at the home in the 700 block of West Monroe Avenue did not have emergency safety latches to allow them to be opened from the inside.
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