Lack of Smoke Alarms a Factor at Blaze Where Trio Were Injured
Sunday, May 5, 2019
LAFD Spokesperson: Brian Humphrey
VERMONT KNOLLS-
Three persons were injured, one gravely, at a south Los Angeles house fire Saturday afternoon.
The Los Angeles Fire Department was notified at 4:19 PM on May 4, 2019 of a structure fire at 625 West 85th Street in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood, where firefighters arrived quickly to discover heavy smoke showing from a 1,308 square-foot one story home.
As firefighters extended hoselines to battle flames, their firefighter/paramedic colleagues immediately attended to an injured man and woman outside the home, who had reportedly been pulled from the burning premises by neighbors, prior to the fire department's arrival.
As the critically injured woman and man in fair condition were being treated, other teams of firefighters, aided by thermal imaging cameras, found and rescued a gravely injured man from within the home, that was charged from floor-to-ceiling with thick dark smoke. The injured trio, suffering from varying degrees of smoke inhalation and burns, were swiftly transported by ambulance to a pair of area hospitals, as the 44 LAFD responders confined the fire to the structure of origin, extinguishing the flames in just 11 minutes. No other injuries were reported. There was no immediate evidence of functional smoke alarms in the home, as required by law. The 105 year-old building did not feature optional residential fire sprinklers. Monetary loss from the fire is still being tabulated. The cause of the blaze remains under active investigation. Dispatched Units: E57 RA257 RA857 E233 E33 T33 E264 T64 BC13 RA33 RA57 EM13 EM11 E64 E266 T66 RA264 RA64 AR1 PH1 PI3 CM32 AR10 AR5
As firefighters extended hoselines to battle flames, their firefighter/paramedic colleagues immediately attended to an injured man and woman outside the home, who had reportedly been pulled from the burning premises by neighbors, prior to the fire department's arrival.
As the critically injured woman and man in fair condition were being treated, other teams of firefighters, aided by thermal imaging cameras, found and rescued a gravely injured man from within the home, that was charged from floor-to-ceiling with thick dark smoke. The injured trio, suffering from varying degrees of smoke inhalation and burns, were swiftly transported by ambulance to a pair of area hospitals, as the 44 LAFD responders confined the fire to the structure of origin, extinguishing the flames in just 11 minutes. No other injuries were reported. There was no immediate evidence of functional smoke alarms in the home, as required by law. The 105 year-old building did not feature optional residential fire sprinklers. Monetary loss from the fire is still being tabulated. The cause of the blaze remains under active investigation. Dispatched Units: E57 RA257 RA857 E233 E33 T33 E264 T64 BC13 RA33 RA57 EM13 EM11 E64 E266 T66 RA264 RA64 AR1 PH1 PI3 CM32 AR10 AR5
