2 Hurt, 15 Flee Fire at Residential Hotel
- Share via
Two people, including a woman who tried to escape flames by clinging to the building’s marquee, were injured and 15 others evacuated Monday night when a “careless smoker” started a fire in a three-story downtown residential hotel, fire officials said.
The greater-alarm fire broke out shortly after 7 p.m. on the top floor of the Leonides Hotel at 510 S. Main St., Fire Department spokesman Greg Acevedo said.
Villa Cuffey, 34, was driven out of a window and onto the hotel’s L-shaped marquee by the flames. She suffered smoke inhalation and first- and second-degree burns to her right arm and shoulders, said Adelaida de la Cerda, a County-USC Medical Center spokeswoman.
Freddie Banks, a hotel resident who tried to make his way through the building to rescue Cuffey, suffered smoke inhalation and cuts to his hands, Assistant Fire Chief David Sloan said.
James Garbin, a bookstore clerk who witnessed the rescue, said: “They had a hard time getting that lady to go down the ladder; she just stood there on the ledge screaming and the flames were coming out the window behind her.”
The fire caused about $40,000 damage, Acevedo said.
Nine city fire engine companies responded and took about 20 minutes to put out the fire, Sloan said.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
It turns out you can burn down a neighborhood and not destroy a community. We’ve seen evidence of this all across L.A. and so we will head back to one neighborhood that’s a good example of that bond: West Poppyfields Drive in Altadena.
Today we discuss one of the pivotal events of the 1960s: the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Though the gunman was caught at the scene, confessed at trial, and even bragged about the shooting, his motives have largely been forgotten.
For this episode of De Los Podcast, hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Sen Dog, founding member and rapper of Cypress Hill — one of the first Latino hip-hop groups to break into the American mainstream.
