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#Post#: 209--------------------------------------------------
HOUSTON DAYCARE FIRE
By: wolfie Date: March 6, 2011, 1:38 am
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Fire at Houston daycare center kills 3, injures 4
Firefighters used thermal imaging cameras to locate some of the
children and quickly started pulling them out one by one
By Chris Duncan
The Associated Press
HOUSTON — A kitchen fire filled a home daycare center with smoke
on Thursday, killing three children and injuring four others.
Firefighters ran with babies and small children in their arms to
nearby ambulances on the crowded street, a fire official said.
All seven children in Jackie's Child Care were taken to
hospitals, said Rick Flanagan, Houston Fire Department's
executive assistant chief. They ranged in age from 18 months to
3 years old, officials said.
Neighbor Michael McAndrews said he saw "smoke billowing out of
the house and firemen up on the roof, trying to make a hole."
Around front, firefighters were carrying children out of the
smoke-filled house, then performing CPR in the yard.
"They were ash-colored," McAndrews said. "They weren't coughing.
They weren't breathing."
Flanagan said no information was immediately available on the
names and ages of those who died. The four injured "are
apparently still clinging to life . . . I don't think they're
out of the darkness yet," Flanagan said.
One was in critical condition and one was in good condition at
Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, said hospital
spokeswoman Jennifer Hart. She said one had also been
transferred to Shriners Hospital burn center in Galveston in
critical condition, and had no information on the other child.
Flanagan said two children had been transferred to the Galveston
hospital, "and that shows you how bad their injuries were." A
nurse at Shriners said they do not release information on
patients.
State regulations allow no more than six children under
preschool age to be cared for in any 24-hour period in
registered child-care homes, said Gwen Carter, Houston
spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective
Services. Preschool age is generally defined as 5 or younger,
she said.
Carter declined to comment when asked whether the Tata home was
in compliance with that rule Thursday.
"Our investigation is just starting, and we have a lot of work
to do," she said.
Firefighters arrived at the one-story home to find it engulfed
in smoke, with two injured children outside and five others
trapped inside. The firefighters had to use thermal imaging
cameras to locate some of the children, Flanagan said, and
quickly started pulling them out one by one.
But because the neighborhood was accessible by only one street,
firefighters at one point were running with babies and small
children in their arms to the nearest ambulances on the crowded
streets.
The daycare center was licensed to Jessica Tata, 22. She did not
respond to a message left by The Associated Press.
McAndrews said Tata was standing in the street and shouting as
firefighters put out the blaze and tried to rescue the children.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the blaze. McAndrews
said Tata said she told firefighters that the fire started in
the kitchen, while she was in the bathroom.
"She was crying, frantic, saying all kinds of stuff," said
McAndrews, 50, who lives on the same block as the daycare
center. "She was saying things to anyone who would listen."
McAndrews said firefighters calmed her down, got her on a
stretcher, put her into an ambulance and left the scene.
The residence was licensed last March 1 as a registered
child-care home, according to Texas Department of Family and
Protective Services records.
Before the home opened, it was cited for not having a fire
extinguisher or carbon monoxide detector, but the deficiency was
corrected last Feb. 24, the records show. Carter said staff
members physically saw the fire extinguisher before the license
was granted.
No problems have been reported at the home since it was
licensed, Carter said. Once licenses are granted, child care
facilities are inspected every two years unless there's a
complaint or particular concern, she said.
Carter said two department staff members were sent to the house
when the fire broke out.
Jennifer Williams, 31, who lives across the street from
McAndrews, was getting ready to pick up her daughter from school
when she saw the emergency vehicles converging and saw a woman
running toward the house. She said she couldn't remember ever
seeing children playing in the yard around the house in the year
she's lived in the neighborhood.
Vera Thompkins, 59, arrived at the scene early Thursday evening,
hoping to talk to Tata. Thompkins said Tata was a regular
church-goer and devoted to caring for children.
"I can't say anything ill about Jessica," Thompkins said. "She
was a good candidate for the children, to interact with them.
What has happened here, I can't explain it."
Cindy Poursartip, another neighbor, later placed a cluster of
pink balloons at the foot of the wooden fence on the side of the
house.
"It's an unbelievable nightmare," she said. "I can't believe you
would drop them off in the morning, and expect to pick them up
and you don't see them again. It has to be unbearable."
___
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
Associated Press writers Juan A. Lozano in Houston and Danny
Robbins, Linda Stewart Ball and Terry Wallace in Dallas
contributed to this report.
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