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1 Killed, 20 Hurt in Fire; Arson Suspected : Pre-Dawn Blaze in Mid-Wilshire Area Leaves Nearly 100 Homeless

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Times Staff Writers

Babies were tossed into waiting arms from fire escapes and tenants hurled themselves to safety Wednesday as a pre-dawn fire raced up the stairwell of an apartment building in the mid-Wilshire area, killing an unidentified man, injuring 20 others and leaving almost 100 homeless.

Arson investigators said the fire appeared to have been deliberately set.

The mostly Mexican and Central American immigrants who lived at the New Beverly Crest apartment building at 416 N. Oxford St., one block east of Western Avenue, were awakened shortly before 6 a.m. by the shouts of mailmen who were arriving for work at a nearby post office.

“We park in a lot near the building, and we saw the smoke, so about five of us ran over there and started yelling ‘Fire!’ ” said Mickey Gordon, a 36-year-old letter carrier.

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“I heard the screams, but I thought it was a fight; I don’t understand much English,” said 27-year-old Jairo Jimenez, who nevertheless escaped unharmed from the building via a fire escape in the rear.

“I woke up and I saw people throwing themselves out of their third- and fourth-story windows,” said first-floor resident Jose Oscar Aguilar, who also got out unscathed.

Two Valley College students who live across the street were credited by firefighters with saving two lives by rescuing a couple from a third-floor window.

Susan Chamberlain and Richard Arriaran, both 23, ran outside and saw Maria Sandoval standing on a third-floor ledge.

“I shouted at her not to jump, but apparently she doesn’t speak English,” Chamberlain said. Arriaran found a large extension ladder in a nearby yard, and the two were able to raise it to the third floor by putting it on a lawn table. Sandoval and her husband, Jorge, scrambled to safety.

The family of Francisco Mejia, who had left for work at a downtown hotel before the fire broke out, also got a helping hand. His wife, Irma, was able to carry their 7-month-old son, Giovanni, from the fourth floor to the second-floor landing of a fire escape, but when the last ladder segment would not slide to the ground, she tossed the child into the waiting arms of mailman Gordon before jumping. She broke her right leg in the fall, Mejia said.

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More than 90 residents of the building, which has been declared unsafe as a result of the fire, registered for emergency help at a Red Cross shelter set up at the Oriental Mission Church at 424 N. Western Ave., agency spokeswoman Peggy McGinley said. The shelter remained empty most of the afternoon as anxious tenants gathered outside the condemned building, waiting for permission to sift through what is left of their belongings.

“I lost everything--my clothes, my money, todo ,” said Jose, a 28-year old who asked that his last name not be used. He suffered burns to both hands, and his right hand was swathed in bandages. He and his wife will be spending the next few nights at his sister-in-law’s house, he said.

The fire, which caused about $200,000 in damage, apparently started in the lobby of the building. The flames rolled up the stairwell to the attic, setting the roof ablaze, then worked their way down through the fourth and third floors before a small army of firefighters succeeded in extinguishing the blaze at 6:30 a.m.

The first of nearly 100 firefighters to arrive saw residents hanging out of windows on both sides of the building. “We probably made 15 rescues out of windows,” said Deputy Commander Donald Anthony, chief of fire suppression.

An unidentified man said to be about 60 was found on the fourth floor suffering smoke inhalation and a possible heart attack, Anthony said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

15 Taken to Hospitals

Seventeen occupants of the 24-unit building suffered injuries that included cuts, smoke inhalation, burns and broken bones. Two were treated at the scene, and 15 were taken to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, County-USC Medical Center, Brotman Memorial Hospital and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; four were admitted for treatment.

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Three city firefighters who were injured were treated at Brotman and Orthopedic hospitals and were released.

Anthony said that “Ponet” fire doors installed on all four floors prevented a worse disaster by keeping the flames from spreading to the main corridors. Solid-core fire doors have been required since 1970, when a fire spread through the corridors of the Ponet Square Apartment House and killed 19 people.

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