2 Firefighters Hurt, Up to 20 Residents Homeless in North Hollywood Blaze

NORTH HOLLYWOOD —  Two firefighters were injured and residents of at least five townhouses were left homeless Monday after a fire raged through their two-story building.

The blaze at 5018 Denny Ave. broke out just before noon and brought about 120 firefighters and 21 fire engines and trucks racing to the scene. Because it was in a residential area and a particularly difficult fire to fight, it was designated a “major emergency structural fire”--the highest classification used by the Los Angeles Fire Department in terms of equipment and personnel use.

“The flames were so high, it was so hot,” said Diane Moore-Trombi, who watched the fire while standing near her home across the street. “It was like a blast of heat after you open the door of an oven.”

Two firefighters were rushed to the hospital because of chest pains, said Bob Collis, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. Collis also said the fire caused close to $100,000 in damage and that as many as 20 residents were displaced.

One firefighter had to have heart surgery and the other, a captain, was well enough to be released from a nearby hospital Monday afternoon, Collis said.

No occupants of the six-unit complex were injured, neighbors and firefighters said.

Most residents were away at work, and others managed to escape, including a group of children who ran out before they had the chance to put on their shoes.

Laura Martinez was visiting her sister Norma Sanchez, who lives in one of the townhouses, and said she started screaming after smelling smoke.

Martinez hustled her husband, her four kids and her sister’s two kids out the door. After the family had run a safe distance away, she noticed that some of the children were still barefoot.

Sanchez, who was away at work when the fire broke out, returned home just in time to see white smoke wafting out of windows.

“The first thing is my kids--at least they’re OK,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “But my home. . . .”

The blaze, which consumed many of the townhouses’ upstairs bedrooms, spread quickly, at one point threatening nearby homes, neighbors said.

“There were flames about 5 feet tall shooting out of there,” said Raven Ziton, who lives in a house next door.

Her husband, Michael, called 911 after he saw smoke and flames and ran to the burning building to warn residents before firefighters arrived.

People were already running out, he said, but he feared others might still be inside. He shouted and kicked in a couple of the townhouses’ doors and found a big white cat cowering in a box inside one home.

The Zitons were keeping the cat in their house until its owner returns--the Zitons were not sure where the owner was. Firefighters also saved two dogs.

Though the blaze was extinguished after a little more than an hour, it was an especially tough one to bring under control, Fire Department spokesman Steve Rudas said.

Because the fire broke out in a townhouse complex, it was as if there were six separate fires to fight, Rudas said. Not only did teams of firefighters have to go into each unit to battle flames upstairs, firefighters also remained downstairs to cover furniture with large sheets of plastic to help protect belongings from water and smoke damage.

“It makes you glad you live in a country where you have firefighters like this,” said Moore-Trombi, the neighbor across the street, sweeping her hand at the parked firetrucks and the firefighters walking about.

Other than a lingering acrid smell of smoke Monday afternoon, the front unit of the complex appeared intact.

But other townhouses, especially the upstairs portion of units toward the rear, were badly damaged. Inside one nearly destroyed room, a small stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh lay beside broken and burned ceiling pieces.

Stephen Engels, an artist, arrived at the townhouse he shares with a roommate just in time to see water dripping all over the home.

“A lot of stuff I can’t replace, photos of my family were upstairs,” he said dejectedly, standing in front of a puddle of water. “I don’t have insurance. I don’t know what to do.”

Sanchez, whose family of nine had no place to sleep as of Monday afternoon, said: “I don’t know where to go.”