Bill enhances fire safety in family child care homes by requiring interconnected smoke detectors

Nearly three years ago, a fire swept through an Erie family child care home during the overnight hours that claimed the lives of five children – all under the age of nine. The fire chief at the time believed all five could have survived the blaze if the home had more than one smoke detector.

The memory of that fire still haunts residents of Erie, including their state Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie County, who is determined to beef up fire safety requirements in child care facilities to try to prevent future tragedies like the one in his hometown.

On Tuesday, Laughlin’s House-amended bill addressing this issue passed the Senate on a 49-0 vote and was sent to Gov. Tom Wolf for enactment. A request for comment from the governor’s office drew no response on Tuesday.

The bill amends state’s Fire and Panic Act to require family child care homes that care for four to six children at any one time who are unrelated to the operator, to have interconnected or electronically connected smoke detection devices within 12 months of the bill’s enactment or the expiration of their current license, whichever is longer.

It would require the alarms be audible when activated throughout the indoor child-care space even when all doors in that area are closed, as is currently required.

The House amended the bill to require each smoke alarm be approved at the time of installation by a testing laboratory recognized by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It also reinforces that these facilities must have a portable fire extinguisher in the kitchen and other cooking areas.

“This bill is long overdue,” Laughlin said. “This bill will not restore the lives that were tragically lost, nor will it ease the pain those grieving families endured. However, it is government’s responsibility to learn from these tragic cases and to act to prevent them from ever occurring again in the future.”

If signed into law by the governor, the measure would be the latest in a string of changes triggered by the fire at the Harris Family Day Care.

The City of Erie approved an ordinance requiring child care facilities be inspected annually for many safety items, including working smoke detectors on every floor and one in every bedroom. The smoke detectors must be interconnected.

The fatal fire also led the Department of Human Services to require its inspectors to ask child care operators to demonstrate that their facility’s smoke detectors are working. Previously, those inspections did not include checking to see if the devices were operable.

Laughlin also succeeded in getting a law to require child care facilities to test their interconnected fire detection device or system monthly. If that isn’t possible, a fire safety professional must confirm it is operational every year.

It also required facilities to maintain a written log to document tests were performed and for inspectors to visually inspect smoke detectors.

Gov. Tom Wolf signed the measure, known as Act 62, in 2020, 11 months after the fire that killed La’Myhia Jones, 8; Luther Jones Jr., 6; Ava Jones, 4; and Jaydan Augustyniak, 9 months, all siblings, and 2-year-old Dalvin Pacley while under the care of Elaine Harris, who had operated the state-certified child care home since 2000.

Her home had one smoke detector, which was working on the night of the fatal fire, said former Erie Fire Chief Guy Santone. It was located in the attic above the second-floor bedrooms where the children slept.

It woke Harris’ son, who was sleeping on the second floor. The boy roused his brother and they climbed out of a second-floor window onto a roof and jumped to safety. Harris, who no longer operates a child care facility, escaped the blaze but suffered some burns.

The five younger children all died of smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide toxicity and thermal injuries, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of the children’s families. The suit attributes the cause of the blaze to a defect in a fan and/or an extension cord used to power it in the home’s living room.

For Santone, determining the cause of the blaze wasn’t enough.

“I honestly believe to this day that if there was a proper amount of smoke detectors in this building nobody would have died,” he said in an interview last year. “They might have been injured but I think we could have got everybody out.”

Looking for child care providers and want to check their safety record? The Department of Human Services provides this website allowing parents to find licensed child care providers and several years of inspection reports.

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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