Security bars slow escape from fire

Jen Lawson and Jace Radke

Monday, March 31, 2003 | 9:47 a.m.

Security bars may have hindered the escape of five people from an early morning house fire.

Three adults and two children were taken to University Medical Center after being trapped in a blaze that began this morning on Luning Way, near Vegas and Rancho drives. Two women, 56 and and 36, were in critical condition this morning, a 14-year-old boy was in serious condition, a 7-year-old girl was in fair condition, and another woman was being treated for minor burns, a hospital spokeswoman said.

"When firefighters arrived there was smoke and flames coming from the house, and neighbors were pulling the burglar bars from the house," Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said. "The bars did have emergency latches to allow them to open from the inside, but they didn't operate.

"We had to use saws to cut through the bars."

It appears that the fire started near the front of the house, forcing the trapped victims to try to get out through the barred windows at the back of the house, Szymanski said.

One woman was pulled from the home by neighbors as firefighters arrived after getting a 911 call about 6:30 a.m.

"The woman told us that there were more people inside," Szymanski said.

An elderly woman, another adult and the two children were also pulled from the house. A next-door neighbor heard a woman calling for help and went to investigate. The neighbor found the woman at the back of the house trapped behind the security bars.

Two nearby construction workers ran over and used a pick to pry the bars off the window and pull the woman out as firefighters arrived, the neighbor said.

The wood frame one-story home is located in an older tree-lined neighborhood of tract homes.

In January 2001 a Las Vegas man died in a fire, when 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.