6 Critically Burned in L.A. Arson Fire : 15 Mexican Immigrants Were Crowded Into Small Apartment

Four adults and two infants were critically injured early Monday as they fled an arson fire outside the small downtown apartment that they shared with nine other members of their extended family of Mexican garment workers.

Investigators said the fire, apparently the fourth arson attempt at the building within a week, was set at about 12:10 a.m. when a third-floor landing was doused with a flammable fluid and set ablaze.

Several family members said they escaped serious injury by smashing a window in the two-room apartment and inching their way along a ledge to a fire escape. They rescued two children by catching them in blankets after calling to adults to drop them from a window.

“We were sleeping in the room when someone woke up yelling, ‘Aunt, Aunt! Wake up! The building is burning!’ ” said Fernando Morales, 38, who survived with his wife, Rosa Roman, and son, Luis Fernando, 4.

“It was dark, just after midnight. There was so much smoke we couldn’t tell what to do. So those on this side of the room smashed the window and those on the other side ran out the door.”

Assistant Los Angeles Fire Chief Frank Borden said the six who ran out the front door were seriously injured because they panicked and ran through the flames.

One of the critically injured, Eugenio Leon Sr., 26, helped two other family members--Ignacio Roman, 17, and Fortunato Sanchez, 18--douse the fire with a hose before he collapsed outside. Firefighters said flames were nearly quenched when they arrived. Investigators said they had no motive for the fire.

Residents of the aging, three-story building at 1116 S. Flower St. said three smaller fires had been put out by tenants in different parts of the building since Wednesday. Fire officials said none had been reported.

Ronald Hasson, identified by the apartment manager as a possible building owner, on the advice of his attorney declined in a telephone interview to say if he owned the building or if he was aware of the previous arson attempts.

The victims lived in a dark, two-room apartment in the building sandwiched between two clothing factories. Nine slept in one room, six in the other; the 15 included three married couples, four related adults and five children.

Morales said family members, who had migrated to Los Angeles at different times from Puebla, Mexico, shared the $460-a-month rent. He said the adults all worked at nearby garment factories .

Almost all are laid off until February, when work picks up for the summer fashion season, he added.

The fire apparently raced up walls covered with New Year calendars, religious pictures and red-and-white felt Christmas stockings proclaiming “Feliz Navidad.”

In the burn unit at County-USC Medical Center with critical injuries are Leon, who suffered second- and third-degree burns over half his body, and his son, Eugenio Jr., 2, with second- and third-degree burns. In critical condition at Brotman Medical Center are Juan Leon, 18, with second- and third-degree burns; Alicia Leon, 16, and Otilia Hernandez, 20. In critical but stable condition at San Bernardino County Hospital is a 7-month-old baby, identified by family members as Jenny Roman.