FIRE KILLS MANHATTAN FAMILY; SMOKE DETECTOR BROKEN

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Injury Attorney) When: October 11, 2008 at around 6:30 A.M. Where: 401 West 18th Street in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, the 7th floor apartment of the Balbuena family. Firefighters arrived within four minutes of a 911 call. While some battled flames that engulfed the kitchen and spread to a living room and long hallway, others rushed into the 20-foot long hallway and the three bedrooms and bathroom at the back of the apartment. In the bathroom, they found the mother, Delkis Balbuena, 34, with her 8-year-old daughter, Nanny Joa Balbuena, in a bathtub filled with water, where they had tried to seek refuge. A 3-year-old girl, Bet-el Joa Balbuena, was also found in the bathroom, under a sink. On the floor in a small bedroom at the back, huddled under bunk beds near a window, firefighters found the 40-year-old father, Maschay Joa Valdez, with his 15-month-old daughter, Ruth Joa Balbuena, and his 10-year-old son, whose name was not released. "It was not a big bedroom," Deputy Fire Chief James Daly said. "They were definitely trying to make their way out." Witnesses said the victims were unconscious when firefighters brought them out of the building. "The firemen were giving them CPR but that wasn't helping. The kids weren't breathing." Smoke inhalation injured and killed them. The 10 year-old boy, the only survivor of the fire, was transferred from St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, where he was pronounced brain dead. (Jacobi has a hyperbaric chamber that treats victims of smoke poisoning by increasing the oxygen flow to body tissues.) Contributing to the fire: 1. The place where the fire began and layout of the apartment contributed to the deadliness of the fire. The only door opened onto a small foyer, with the kitchen to the left and a living room to the right. Beyond those rooms, a long hallway leads to three bedrooms and the apartment's only bathroom at the back. Fire officials said the long hallway acted like a chimney, drawing smoke from the kitchen - which was near the front door - into the living quarters in the rear. "It was intense heat that trapped the family in the back," said Deputy Chief James Daly. The fire quickly engulfed the kitchen and spread to the living room, blocking the exit, Chief Daly said. "That fire didn't allow them to get past the door," he added. "They were trapped in the rear." As smoke filled the rooms and flames spread, the family apparently retreated along the hallway to the back of the apartment. "That narrow hallway is now basically a chimney that they're trying to get down, and they can't," Chief Daly said. Recommended was for them to have shut the bedroom doors and use wet towels to cover the openings at the bottoms of the doors, and wait for rescue by fire fighters. 2. Smoke detector disabled. The apartment's partially-melted smoke detector had been doubly-disabled. It should have been wired into the building electrical system, and had a battery back-up. The battery had been removed and the wires disconnected, the Fire Department said. A working smoke detector might have saved the six. Comment: Make sure you have working smoke detectors - press that "test" button.