Woman Saves 5 in Arson Fire; 4 Others Killed

Four elderly women died in a pre-dawn fire Saturday at a board-and-care facility, while a neighbor fought through billowing smoke and leaping flames to enter the “pitch dark” house and lead five other residents to safety.

“I could hear people running around and I tried to lead them out front, but they didn’t want to go,” said Lynda Lefever, whom fire officials credited with the rescue. “They seemed disoriented. Their friends were in there and were screaming, ‘Help, help. I don’t want to die this way. Lord, help me.’ ”

A suspect was booked for murder on suspicion of setting the fire at the home in Southwestern Los Angeles.

Firemen Give Credit

Fire officials said that the five survivors, including a critically injured woman, owe their lives to Lefever, 35. A sixth survivor made his own way to safety.

“Anybody’s who’s willing to go in and brave the smoke and heat of a fire without the knowledge of a firefighter or our breathing equipment is certainly in my eyes to be considered a hero,” Fire Department spokesman Ed Reed said.

The murder suspect was one of the people Lefever led from the house. Southwest Division homicide Detective John Bunch said Walter Evans Jr., 34, who also lived at the facility, made statements Saturday implicating himself in previous arson fires and was a suspect in a 1983 arson blaze at his former residence in the same part of the city.

The fire broke out shortly after 6 a.m. at Bell’s Rest Home in the 2100 block of W. 25th Street, a Fire Department spokesman said. Bunch said investigators found evidence of arson at the scene, but he would not elaborate.

Lefever said she was awakened early Saturday by a “big pop” and looked out the window of her upstairs bedroom to see flames rising “about five feet off the back side of my neighbor’s house.”

She said she called the 911 emergency number, quickly threw on some clothes and ran to the front of the rest home, where owner Fannie Gadson, 66, was “screaming, ‘Help, Help, Help.’ ”

Lefever said she and Gadson entered through the front door and were immediately engulfed in smoke. Because the blaze had severed the structure’s electricity, the house was “pitch dark,” Lefever said.

Peeled Hands From Knob

“I remember seeing the flames coming out and having to peel one woman’s hands off the door knob and telling her she had to come out. I’m sure they wanted to get their friends.”

At one point, Lefever said, she ran back into her own house, grabbed some rags and doused them with water. But a few hours later, she could not remember having used them.

“I guess it was just a reflex after being hit by that smoke,” she said. “Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered that you were supposed to do that. But I don’t remember using them. I must have dropped them or something. Everything happened so fast.”

As she was leading the last of the five along a walkway at the side of the house, Lefever said the living room window “just blew out. There was a blast of heat and glass was flying everywhere. I felt like the fire was in my hair. There was no way to get back inside.”

‘I Went Right In’

Asked if she had any initial hesitation about entering the burning structure, Lefever said: “I went right in. I couldn’t have just stood outside.”

Two of the dead, found in their beds, apparently perished as a result of smoke inhalation, police said. They were identified as Willa Johnson, 89, and Lillie Drakes, 91. Police were awaiting dental records to identify the other two victims, whose charred bodies were found on the floor of the house.

Reed said one of them may have tried to climb through a window protected with wrought iron bars that could not be opened from the inside. He explained that a city ordinance, which applies only to bars installed after 1976, requires that at least one barred window in each bedroom be equipped with a release latch on the inside.

96-Year-Old Survives

He added that the City Council is considering an ordinance that would make the latch provision retroactive to apply to bars, such as those in the rest home, that were installed before 1976.

Marian Martin, 96, was listed in critical condition at Westside Hospital after suffering smoke inhalation and a near-cardiac arrest, a supervising nurse reported. Lefever was also credited with rescuing the suspect; Gadson; Gadson’s sister, Bertha Hill, 60, and Carrie Swindell, 77. The suspect suffered some burns to his arms, but the others were unharmed.

The sixth survivor, Anthony Jackson, 37, who was living in the garage, made his own way to safety but suffered smoke inhalation when he entered the house to assist in the rescue effort, police said. He was listed in good condition at County-USC Medical Center.

‘Devastated’ at Deaths

It took seven city fire companies--about 30 firefighters--16 minutes to extinguish the blaze. The white, wood-frame home, built in 1906, sustained an estimated $100,000 damage, while $55,000 worth of contents were destroyed, the Fire Department reported.

A few hours after the blaze, as the bodies were being removed by Los Angeles County coroner’s officials, rescuer Lefever played down her role, saying that she was “devastated” that four people died.

“What’s running through my mind is the woman who was still in there screaming, and I couldn’t get back inside--the smoke and flames were too much,” Lefever said. “I feel real sad. That woman will haunt me, the way she kept yelling for help.”