Fire Mars Party Noting Crisis Center Milestone

Three hours after a gala party celebrating the 10th anniversary of a community counseling organization, a counselor and residents of the group’s halfway house found themselves fleeing a fire that charred the South-Central Los Angeles facility early Friday.

The smoke was gone Friday afternoon, but the halfway house for mentally disabled people still smelled of the fire that erupted about 3 a.m.

Sitting in the front office of Compass House near the USC campus were several of the administrators and counselors of Community Counseling Service, a crisis residential program which the night before had celebrated its 10th anniversary with an affair on the campus.

Eleven Asleep

At the time of the fire, which officials attributed to a faulty floor furnace, 10 patients and one live-in counselor were sleeping in upstairs bedrooms. Although smoke and fire alarms failed to go off, the quick thinking of one of the residents and the counselor prevented the fire from causing injuries.

“I sensed smoke and saw smoke coming into my apartment,” said Harriet McDonald, Compass House’s live-in counselor. “I immediately took a towel, wet it with cold water and crawled out of my room into the hallway.”

There, joined by an 18-year-old resident, McDonald went to each of the rooms, waking up the occupants and escorting them outside. Once in the front yard, the two took a head count and made their way back into the smoky house for two missing residents.

A neighbor, hearing the cries of some of the residents, had called firefighters, who responded within five minutes. One female resident froze in panic in a front bedroom and was coaxed out of a window by firefighters along a cloth bridge of bed sheets.

Calm in Crisis

“The residents were amazing,” McDonald, a psychology student at California State University, Los Angeles, said. “At one point they had to calm me down.”

Compass House is one of two crisis facilities operated by the counseling service. The other one, Puerto Esperanza, holds six mentally ill residents in Highland Park.

All of the residents, ranging in age from 18 to 52, suffer from psychiatric crises, said Executive Director Dr. Cecil Hoffman. Those routed by the fire spent Friday night in Puerto Esperanza and similar centers.

The blaze left the future of Compass House in doubt.

“I’m not sure what we’re going to do with the house,” said Hoffman, who said he hopes to reopen it, but not for at least two months. Fire officials estimated the damage at $28,000.

Reason for Festivities

Hoffman said Thursday night’s festivities were held partly to celebrate the accumulation of enough funds from government grants and private sources to buy Compass House outright. Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and City Councilman Robert Farrell were among about 150 people attending the anniversary party.

For now, patient care will continue in the Highland Park facility and at similar homes in Los Angeles, program director Adrienne Eisenberg said. She noted that there are only three other similar programs in the county.

“The program is helpful,” an 18-year-old resident said. “It’s better than the streets and better than sleeping on the beach. I’m thankful for everything.”

Not the least of which, he added, was escaping the night with his life.