Fire At A Pennsylvania Day Care Kills Five Children.
SHEVONA OVERTON, LOST FOUR CHILDREN IN PENNSYLVANIA DAY CARE FIRE: I lost all four of my babies -- like, all of them. Like, it's hard for me to eat, sleep, cope. It's just so hard.</s>HILL: You can't even begin to imagine. Shevona Overton says she will never recover from the agony of losing all four of her children in a fire at a Pennsylvania day care center. The mother who runs that in-home day care in Erie also lost her child in the fire. And we've learned there was just one working smoke detector in the house, up in the attic. Joining us now is Guy Santone. He's the fire chief in Erie, Pennsylvania and responded to the fire early that morning. And we can see the remnants of it behind you, Chief. I mean, as you arrived there, at what point did you realize that there were children trapped in the home?</s>CHIEF GUY SANTONE, ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA FIRE DEPARTMENT: We were notified on the route to the fire that there were possible people trapped upstairs. And when we got here the neighbors told us they heard screaming up there a little bit before we got there. So, our crews initially started to attack the fire and then, at the same time, we had crews ladder the building --</s>HILL: Yes.</s>SANTONE: -- to gain entry to the second floor. They were able to find the five children within a couple of minutes and have them down -- outside of the house within 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the results weren't what we were hoping.</s>HILL: And we just heard from the mother of those four siblings. Three of them -- their dad, Luther Jones, is a nearby firefighter. Have you been in touch with him at all with his department?</s>SANTONE: I have talked to his fire chief up in Lawrence Park and I expressed our sympathy. And I told him to tell him that if there's anything they need we're here.</s>HILL: This is -- I mean, I know you train for this and you deal with horrific events often, but I -- from what I understand, this was especially tough for your department -- for the folks who responded. How are they working through it at this point?</s>SANTONE: Well, you know, our job is challenging enough. I mean, this was a tough one. But we have a peer review group that we established a couple of years ago. And what that is is a group of firefighters that are -- that are trained to handling critical incident stress. And they're in the process of now talking to everybody that was on the scene. In case anybody has an issue, we're dealing with it right away.</s>HILL: When it comes to the home, as we've learned, there was one smoke detector in the attic. There were regular inspections and we've seen the latest one in December, which mentioned some corrections. But the inspection didn't mention any concerns with fire safety. Based on what you saw and based on what we see behind you, do you think maybe something was missed? I mean, what should we be looking out for here?</s>SANTONE: What we have -- would happen -- we found this out yesterday. The city was not aware that this day care was here. Any day cares that were permitted prior to 2004 were permitted through the state. Anything after that, they have to be permitted through the city. Now, there's two loopholes. One is that when the state permits it before 2004, they don't have to notify the local authorities. So their inspection company is DHS, the Department of Human Services. The other loophole is when they inspect, they basically inspect just for cleanliness. They don't inspect for smoke detectors or fire extinguishers or anything of that nature. So I had a conversation with the representative from DHS yesterday. I expressed my displeasure and I instructed her that the city wants the addresses of every day care within the city limits that they inspect, and they delivered through on that yesterday afternoon.</s>HILL: Well, that is good to know. And just -- I mean, a reminder for all us right now who are watching at home, just on a practical level, what do we need for smoke detectors? What should be in someone's house just to make sure that if there is a fire they can handle it safely until help arrives?</s>SANTONE: Well, in the city of Erie, we started a rental inspection program where we require that every residence has a smoke detector in every bedroom, outside in the hallway of the bedrooms, and a smoke detector on every floor, including the basement and the attic. And that's for everybody, whether a rental, a day care or a private residence. We've shown and proven that the smoke detectors work. And this is my personal opinion, but I think if this day care would have been equipped with the proper amount of smoke detectors there's a very good chance that all five of these children would still be alive today.</s>HILL: A sobering thought. Chief Guy Santone, appreciate you taking the time to join us this morning, sir. Thank you.</s>SANTONE: Thank you.</s>HILL: Thanks to our international viewers for watching. For you, "CNN NEWSROOM WITH MAX FOSTER" is next. For our U.S. viewers, CNN's NEW DAY continues right now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Epstein was supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes. He was left alone for hours.</s>WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This case will continue on. 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