Bars Unneeded, Say Neighbors of Victim

Neighbors of an 11-year-old Stanton girl who was trapped in a blaze Friday night behind metal-barred windows said Sunday that their area is safe, so they do not know why the landlord installed the security bars.

The rented home at 10532 Court St. is the only one on the block with metal bars on its windows. Lucille Salyers, who lives next door, said she saw the owner installing the bars about a year ago. A sign saying “No Trespassing” also hangs on a gate that leads to three apartments in the rear of the property.

Rachelle Jensen, 11, died of burns and smoke inhalation Friday night after her mother, Becky Jensen, and neighbors tried in vain to pry the security bars loose from her bedroom window.

Touched Off by Lighter

The fire reportedly began while her 3-year-old brother was playing with a cigarette lighter in her bedroom. The smoke and heat were too intense for the mother to rescue the victim from the inside.

Metal bars “do nothing to help us in any way to be able to protect people’s lives,” said Hank Raymond, public information officer for the Orange County Fire Department. “They hinder us, in fact.

“I’d rather see them put the money into residential sprinklers. Without a doubt, if they would have used that money to put in a residential sprinkler system, that girl would be alive today.”

Neither the Jensens, who neighbors said rented the front unit in the four-unit complex, nor the landlord, Hossein Abbasi, could be reached for comment Sunday.

Older Neighborhood

The older neighborhood of apartments and single-family homes is 2 blocks from Beach Boulevard, cityscaped with power lines, mini-marts and storage yards. The county Sheriff’s Department, which provides police protection to Stanton, did not have crime statistics available Sunday for the neighborhood.

But neighbors said that they consider security bars too dangerous to use and that they are not needed in the area.

They said they walk freely at night in the neighborhood, which is patrolled regularly by deputies for permit parking.

“People are pretty mellow in this neighborhood,” said Ken Dorwin, who said he has lived in the area for 7 years.

“It’s quite safe in here,” said Tam Nguyen, owner of a rental home two doors down from where the Jensens live.

“It’s not the quiet ranch it used to be,” said Myrtle Beavers, 89, who has lived in her home across the street from the Jensens for 63 years. In that time, she said, she has been robbed “two or three times” but lost nothing of value.

Area Called ‘Fairly Safe’

She said the area is “fairly safe” and would not consider using metal bars: “Sometimes those bars cause more death than if there were not there, and the robbers came in and took everything.”

“I’m not threatened by the neighborhood,” said a neighbor who is buying the bungalow home in which he lives.

Echoing the beliefs of others in the block, he said: “I don’t think bars are safe. They keep people in as much as they keep them out.”

Marilyn Lozano, mother of six, said that if her landlord put metal bars on her apartment, she would move.