2 Die in Fire as Smoke Alarm Fails

A fire swept through a Tujunga home late Tuesday, killing a woman and her grandson who may not have been alerted to the flames because a smoke alarm failed, authorities said Wednesday.

The bodies of Elizabeth Cecilia Petteplace, 49, and Sean Petteplace, 9, were discovered about 11:30 p.m. inside the two-story house on the 7500 block of Owens Street after Los Angeles city firefighters extinguished the blaze.

The woman’s husband and the boy’s father were downstairs watching television but escaped unharmed when the fire started on the first floor and quickly spread upstairs, Battalion Chief Ben Costantino said. The woman and child were asleep, and the smoke detector outside the woman’s bedroom was not activated, Costantino said.

Neighbors saw the woman standing near an upstairs window and urged her to climb onto the roof, Costantino said. But she went back inside, perhaps to rescue the boy, and was not seen alive again, he said.

Fire officials are investigating the blaze, which caused an estimated $150,000 damage.