4 are injured in South L.A. fire; 2 young boys are in grave condition

Two 3-year-old boys were fighting for their lives Tuesday night after a fire ripped through their South Los Angeles home. Two adults were also injured, authorities said.

A third child, a 4-year-old girl, was rescued by a neighbor before the Fire Department arrived and was not injured. A woman, possibly the children’s grandmother, also escaped without injury.

The blaze was reported at 9:05 p.m. in the 800 block of East 113th Street in the Green Meadows neighborhood, according to a statement by Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. When fire crews arrived, they encountered a one-story home that was “well-involved” in flames, he said.

The house was not outfitted with mandatory smoke alarms or optional fire sprinklers, Humphrey said in the statement.

It took 86 firefighters 20 minutes to knock down the blaze. During that time, fire crews rescued the two young boys and a man. All three were hospitalized with burn injuries; the boys were listed in grave condition and the man in critical condition.

A woman was evaluated at the scene and later taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The Los Angeles Fire Department is investigation the cause of the fire.

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