Smoke detectors for deaf could have saved Moreno Valley women
Yandiri "Ruby" Pacheco

Melissa Phoenix "Missy"



10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, December 4, 2007

By SONJA BJELLAND
The Press-Enterprise

Special smoke detectors equipped to alert deaf or hard-of-hearing residents take work to find and are expensive. But one might have saved the two deaf women who perished in a mobile-home fire Sunday morning.

The detectors use strobe lights, high frequency sound, vibrations or a combination to alert residents. Fire officials said they have found no evidence that any type of smoke detector was in the Moreno Valley home.

Brad DeLoye was friends with both women. All graduated from the California School for the Deaf, Riverside.

"Better technology, they needed that in their home," said DeLoye.

A third graduate of the school died in July from carbon monoxide poisoning in a fire in her mobile home in Idaho.

The alarms start at about $100 -- regular alarms can be had for $10 -- and cannot be purchased at most hardware stores, and few programs exist to subsidize such purchases.

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The city of Riverside has a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist with the purchases but hasn't found volunteers to install the devices.

Riverside County is now looking at applying for such a grant.

The two women, Melissa Phoenix and Yandiri "Ruby" Pacheco, graduated from the school 10 years apart but were close friends.

While in school, Phoenix was a cheerleader, class vice president and involved with journalism and photography. She graduated in 1994.

Pacheco lived on campus after moving from Acapulco, Mexico, and participated in volleyball, softball and cheerleading. She married Alex Valencia about two years ago. She would have turned 22 Friday.

"We were going to have a party Sunday at Mom's house," said Jeannine DeLoye, Brad DeLoye's wife. "Now we're having to make funeral arrangements instead."

Pacheco's new favorite passion was Jesus. She would attend any church that had a sign-language interpreter.


Pacheco and DeLoye frequently communicated through typed messages. DeLoye said she wished she had saved the last message.

A lit candle somehow started the fire about 5:30 a.m. Sunday. Phoenix and Pacheco were asleep in a bedroom and Valencia was sleeping in the living room, family members said.

Both women died in the home and Valencia escaped with burns to his feet.

Rules and Regulations

Riverside County fire Capt. Julie Hutchinson could not say for certain that an alarm would have made a difference.

However, she said smoke detectors are important for any household, and families with members who have special needs should determine what will work best. That includes anyone with a hearing aid who removes it at night, she said.

In California, landlords are not required to provide a special smoke alarm for a person who is deaf, but if a tenant requests permission to install one, the landlord cannot refuse, said Ron Javor, assistant director of the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

With new construction, smoke alarms are usually required and most are hardwired, making them easier to modify for a flashing light or vibrating alarm.

Public buildings and hotels are required to have such devices available, but private residences have less regulation.

Affording special alarms can be difficult.

Allan Fraser, a National Fire Protection Association senior building code specialist, said there aren't enough customers to keep the prices low.

Various state and federal agencies said they do not have programs to subsidize or provide the alarms.

Riverside obtained a FEMA grant to provide deaf and hard-of-hearing residents with a combination strobe and high-decibel smoke detector, said Samantha Neathery, a Riverside Fire Department public education specialist.

The department is working with the Center on Deafness-Inland Empire to distribute the alarms. However, each unit must be hardwired and they have not found volunteers who can install them, Neathery said.

"We're not going to just distribute them if it can't be installed right away," Neathery said.

Staff writer Gregor McGavin contributed to this report.

Reach Sonja Bjelland at 951-368-9642 or sbjelland@PE.com

link- below

http://www.pe.com/localnews/morenovalley/stories/PE_News_Local_D_deaf05.606be3.html


I just found out one my friend I known her for long time that just died from this fire on sunday morning that was big shock to me to lose my good friend. Her name was Melissa Phoenix and I know her from chuch that I used to go and she was great friend to have. They had no chance due to no fire alarm or smoke thing that would go off if there is fire.

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I have a huge fear of fire. Thats to say I have a fear of dying by fire. Not that I see a match and start to treble and cry. I love camp fires and all that crap, I just have a very uncomfortable fear of my house burning down with me in it.

Could be due to the fact that my Dads a fireman. Though its probably caused by a memory I had blocked until about a year or two ago. The memory was from when I was 5-6 years old. As I said already, my Dad is a fireman. So he's always interested in fire related stuff. One day we were on vacation and my dad noticed a fire truck racing towards what looked like a huge smoke cloud. Obvously my dad followed the truck (with my whole family in the car lol) and soon enough we found a pretty spectacular barn fire in progress. This huge barn was about 3/4s on fire. Only the one wall of the barn wasnt on fire (but the fire was huge and it was moving quickly) and this wall had big barn doors on it for the cows to use.

This is how I always remembered it. I remember there were a ton of very scared looking cows all packed into the courner of the field. Then I remember seeing this huge barn fire that looked like a giant ball of fire. I always remembered being scared and feeling sick, but I never understood why. I did however always fear my house burning down and me being in it. I just didnt understand why this fire made me scared of that. That was until my block on the memory wore off and my mother explained what really happened.

Apparently when we pulled up the fire was huge. I remember that, but what I had been blocking was that the barn was still full of cows. When we pulled up there were still cows running out on fire making some ungodly cow screams (lol). It sounds funny now, but when I was five years old it scared me silly. I can remember it pretty easy now. It was a pretty scary site to see cows on fire running around and dying right before my little five year old eyes. I basically watched a bunch of them burn alive. We didnt stick around very long as soon as my mother\father saw the cows on fire they drove away asap. Still my mother laughed when she found out I had blocked it out. She laughed because it made perfect sense that the root of my fire fears came from that instance.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

I thought this was going to be a joke. Like the 2 "deaf girls walk into a bar"

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Wow seeing the cows running on fire would be f'ed up as a kid. That would have haunted me also.

I also fear being trapped in a fire. That's one of the worst ways to die (next to a free falling from a high distance, being tortured, or being eaten alive by something). I actually got nervous staying in my sisters dorm in NYC because it was 14 stories high, and the fire escape was iffy. I couldn't imagine being a firefighter there.

If there was a fire at my house, it's easy because I could bust through a window and escape. My house is small, 1 story, and has windows all over. I'm lucky there.

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Yarr why did you block that horrendous memory out? It didn't seem bad at all. It was an isolated barn fire haha. My dad is a firefighter as well and he does the same thing so I've seen a few blazes. None of them seemed very frightening though haha

edit: oh I didn't read the last paragraph. I guess that's warranted slightly more haha

Yeah thats the funny part Ponuh, for years (I was only reminded about what really happened like a year or two ago) I couldnt figure out why I was so scared about death by fire. I mean its not like people arnt scared of it by default, but I was terrified. I use to make sure I had a fire alarm in my room and I made sure I tested it all the time. Yet I never understood why I was so scared.

Even so the same sight wouldnt affect me very much.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

You drove away from free hamburgers? Thats just crazy. Anyways my sister is deaf, ill ask her what she thinks

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"My dreams are all dead & buried. Sometimes I wish the sun would just explode. When God comes and calls me to his kingdom, I'll take all you sonsabitches when I go"

I'd be pretty horrified if I saw cows screaming in pain while on fire running for their lives.

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I see what you did there. Also I wouldn't have turned away the free food.

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[In Yarr we trust.]

yarr were the cows wielding giant axes? if so i think someone posted a photo online of your experience.

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

I refuse to play the cow map! LOL JUST KIDDING! THE COW KING DROP RATE IS TOO HIGH KEKEKEKEKEKEKEK

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh