Apparent Suicide Attempt Triggers Blast; 6 Hurt

A Van Nuys man’s apparent suicide attempt--lighting a cigarette in an apartment filled with gas from a stove--virtually blew apart his apartment building early Thursday morning, injuring six people and leaving about 30 others homeless, authorities said.

The force of the 12:02 a.m. blast threw Carlus Hasjim, 21, who said he was lighting a cigarette in the bathroom, about 50 feet through the back wall of his second-story apartment and into a rear parking lot.

Late Thursday, he was reported in good condition at County-USC Medical Center with first- and second-degree burns on his face, neck and arms. The other five injured people received mostly cuts and bruises and were not hospitalized.

Hasjim was later arrested on suspicion of recklessly causing the blast, a felony, authorities said.

“He was apparently trying to kill himself when he set the whole thing off,” said Los Angeles Fire Inspector Ed Reed.

Tenants Sleeping

The explosion ripped through the square-shaped building, with a pool and courtyard in the center, while many of the tenants were sleeping or watching television.

The blast lifted the roof cleanly off the back portion of the building at 6858 Kester Ave., destroyed the apartments on either side of Hasjim’s and shattered glass doors and windows of apartments as far as a block away. The explosion was followed by a fire in the rubble of Hasjim’s apartment. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in about 20 minutes.

“The building is pretty much destroyed,” Reed said. “Probably much of it will have to be demolished.”

Frank Gallego, 28, who said he was recovering from a recent kidney transplant, was lying on a couch watching TV in the apartment closest to Hasjim’s when the explosion sent a shower of glass and other debris through his living room. His wife Lupe was asleep in a back bedroom.

“I was watching Johnny Carson, and the next thing I knew, kaboom! All this light and glass was going all over the place,” he said.

“I was knocked off the couch onto my knees. I thought it was a bomb. The first thing I did was run barefoot through the glass to the bedroom . . . (and) my wife was OK,” he said.

Arson investigators said all the gas jets on the stove were open. The investigators questioned Hasjim throughout the day and later said it was still not clear whether Hasjim intentionally triggered the explosion.

“Exactly what he was planning to do and what happened is still a little hazy,” Reed said. “He has made statements that contradict the evidence found at the apartment.”

Times staff photographers Joel P. Lugavere and Boris Yaro contributed to this article.