In the aftermath of the fire that left three children dead in Northwest Baltimore, thoughts turned to what might have prevented the blaze that took the lives of the siblings neighbors described as happy.
“They were nice kids, very friendly. When they played outside they would wave,” Denise Burley said Tuesday afternoon, standing at the door of her Forest Park home, a block from the location of Friday?s fire.
“All I saw was a lot of smoke coming out of the windows and people banging on the door trying to help them. It?s hard to believe it happened so fast.”
Indeed, firefighters were on the scene just four minutes after a 911 call reported the blaze that killed Elijah Fields 13, his brother Seidik, 8 and sister Siedah 5, fire officials said Tuesday. Witnesses said they heard one child cry for help, unable to get through the front door that may have been locked.
“I heard they couldn?t get out. Some people said the doors might have been locked,” said Stacey Smith, who also lives across the street from the Fields home.
On Tuesday afternoon the windows and doors of the residence were boarded over, a memorial of teddy bears spread across the door step.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, Chief Kevin Cartwright, spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Department, said Tuesday.
Meanwhile the deadly fire evoked memories of other recent calamities that claimed the lives of the city?s youngest residents.
Last May, eight family members ? five of them children ? perished in a blaze in East Baltimore that consumed a row house within minutes. In December, two children died after an electrical fire broke out in their Roland Park home.
What all these fires have in common, Baltimore fire officials said, is the toxic combination of combustible items coupled with the precious few moments afforded occupants to escape.
“We have a training exercise where we light a fire in a 10 by 12 room,” said Chief Kevin Cartwright, spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Department. “It takes 70 seconds for that room to fill with toxic smoke. It?s really sobering.”
Burning furniture, blankets and clothing sends hot particulate matter into the air that, when inhaled, can be deadly.
“We always say you have one breath,” Cartwright said. “That?s why its essential for people to have an escape plan for every room in the house.”
Safety advocates also said the city?s aging housing stock contributes to the danger.
“New homes are required to be wired so that if a smoke alarm goes off on the first floor, the alarm on the third floor will go off as well,” said Scott Coven, a fire prevention expert for the Philadelphia-based Burn Foundation.
“If you?re upstairs and a fire starts in the basement you?ll know sooner ? and time is of the essence.”
