Neighbors Rescue Trapped Woman as Three Homes Burn

Three turn-of-the-century homes in Angeleno Heights caught fire early Tuesday, chasing 12 residents into the street as columns of flames reached high into the chilly morning air.

No one was injured, thanks to some last-second heroics by neighbors who rescued an invalid woman from one of the burning homes.

A neighbor, Juanita Prange, 42, who lives next door to a house at 1463 Ridge Way, one of the three homes that burned, said that when she ran to the street, a house at 1467 Ridge Way, where the fire apparently broke out, “was a big torch” and flames were spreading to two adjacent homes.

Woman Trapped

On the second floor of a four-unit building at 1463 Ridge Way, a paralyzed woman in her 70s was trapped. Frank Halstead, 21, a student who lives across the street, and Ken Evenhuis, 42, a mailman, dashed to her aid.

The two men said they found the woman in a wheelchair and her elderly husband pacing back and forth, unable to carry his wife down the stairs.

“He wouldn’t leave without her,” Halstead said.

Halstead and Evenhuis carried the elderly woman, wheelchair and all, down the stairs and her husband followed, only seconds before the room exploded into flames, Halstead said.

The house at 1467 Ridge Way, a two-story Craftsman-style bungalow, burned to the ground.

Neighbors said they had complained for years to police and city building officials that the two-story house was an unsafe structure.

‘Problem House’

The neighbors, requesting anonymity, said the son of the home’s owner, Diane Roscoe of Los Angeles, lived in the house and held parties in the home for days at a time.

“It was a problem house,” one neighbor said.

According to city records, the Roscoe house was cited on Dec. 13, 1985, by the Department of Building and Safety because of its “general dilapidated conditions,” said Richard Sanchez, principal residential inspector.

Sanchez said the owner subsequently took out construction, plumbing and electrical permits to upgrade the house. But, he added, the permits expired earlier this year without further inspections and he did not know whether the improvements had been made.

“We have several thousand jobs we try to keep up with,” Sanchez explained.

Ironically, he said, officials had been scheduled to meet with Diane Roscoe today.

Neither Roscoe nor her son, Eugene, could be reached for comment Tuesday.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Gloria Molina, who represents Angeleno Heights near Dodger Stadium, visited the fire scene Tuesday morning. She criticized building and safety officials for not keeping more current on problem buildings.

“Inspections have to be more closely monitored than they have,” Molina said.

In terms of no one being injured, the councilwoman said, this time, “the city was lucky. . . . I hold my breath every time I hear about one of these fires.”

Los Angeles Fire Department officials said they got the first call on the blaze at 4:15 a.m. Twelve engine companies responded and controlled the flames within an hour. Total damage to the three structures was estimated at $200,000 by fire officials. Cause of the fire was under investigation.

The third house, at 1471 Ridge Way, is a two-story, bungalow-style red brick and gray board structure built in 1908. It was bought two years ago by Jim McHargue, 41, a U.S. Treasury agent, and his wife, Paula.

As he inspected his badly damaged home, McHargue said he had bought the house from old-line Los Angeles residents and its original owners, the Garibaldi family.

With barely time to dress, “we cleared out as fast as we could,” he said.