By Scott A. Marks, Attorney and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
Seven children had to be evacuated from a residential day care center in Alameda, California, after a fire broke out at the center. Fire fighters were able to extinguish the flames within 30 minutes and, luckily, no one was hurt or personally injured in the fire at Marva’s Happy Town FCC. Marva Lyons, owner of the day are, said all the children were taking naps when the fire broke out. The day care center also serves as the home for Lyons, her adult daughter, and 6-year-old granddaughter. Lyons said she went upstairs after she heard a pop and immediately saw the amount of smoke. Lyons waited down the street with the children while fire fighters searched for hot spots inside the home. Also while waiting, Lyons was hurriedly flipping through her contact book to notify the parents of the children about the incident. Acting Fire Chief Mike Fisher said the fire began upstairs, and although there were not many flames there was a lot of smoke. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. For more read 7 children safely evacuated after fire breaks out in Alameda, California day care.
Owners and operators of residential day care centers, as well as non-residential centers, need to ensure that their facilities are properly equipped with smoke and fire prevention devices. Every child care center should have properly installed and working smoke detectors.