LOS ANGELES : Fire Victims’ Relatives File Suit, Claim for Damages

Relatives of 10 people and two unborn children killed in a May 3 apartment fire sued the building’s owners Monday for $5 million, and filed a $5-million claim against the city.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Samuel Paz said the lawsuit against the owners and managers of the building at 330 S. Burlington Ave. “will be a step toward securing some measure of relief for the people that live within the inner city, in terms of the safety of the buildings that they live in.”

The owners and managers of the three-story building jammed with mostly Latin American residents had been cited by fire inspectors April 10 and April 12 and warned to initiate an around-the-clock fire watch.

Paz said that the claim against the city--a legal maneuver in preparation for the filing of a lawsuit--is based on the belief “that there should have been positive steps taken once a fire order for a 24-hour watch (was put) in place.”

Senior Assistant City Atty. Tom Hokinson, who heads the civil liability division of the city attorney’s office, said the state Government Code makes the city immune from liability in such cases. A receptionist for one of the co-defendants, Woodland Hills-based Yale Management Services, which operated the building, said: “We are not issuing statements at this moment.”