Luck, Quick Work Get the Credit for an ‘Amazing’ Rescue : Evacuation: Residents of high-rise apartment building ignited by construction blaze avoid panic and avert disaster. Only one is injured.

Despite the apparent failure of a building alarm, quick action by residents, security workers and firefighters--as well as a little luck--helped avoid a disastrous loss of life Saturday in the Wilshire Boulevard residential tower that took the brunt of one of the worst fires in city history.

The nearly 30-year-old, 14-story Wilshire Terrace housed a number of elderly residents, some of whom are disabled, and some entertainment personalities such as director Billy Wilder and actress Greer Garson.

Everyone made it out alive, but not everyone left quickly.

Two elderly women--one described as nearly blind and about 84 years old--remained in their apartments throughout the four-hour blaze and well into the afternoon, when fire officials escorted them out. One was found on the fifth floor and one on the 12th floor. Neither woman suffered serious injury.

Fire Capt. James Littlefield said he and other firefighters took the woman down from the 12th floor. “We walked her down one step at a time. It was very difficult persuading her to leave,” he said. Fire officials added that she was never threatened.

“When they saw our men in full breathing gear, they decided to come down,” Division Chief Jim Young said. “They left on their own volition.”

In all 106 residents, some helped by nurses, neighbors and firefighters, escaped. Only one suffered injuries.

“It was absolutely amazing,” said city Fire Marshal Davis Parsons. “At that time of morning, with that much fire, we very easily could have had many people killed.”

“It was great,” said William Stace, a Los Angeles city fire safety officer who on Saturday was evaluating the evacuation. “Except I don’t know who to give credit to.”

Despite the successful rescue, officials said they were examining possible deficiencies in the building’s fire preparedness plan, including the apparent lack of a designated fire captain for each floor and claims by some residents that required annual fire drills had not been held.

Some residents complained that they did not hear the fire alarm, although others said they did hear it.

Jon Waldron, an executive with George Elkins Co., which manages the building, said the warning system was short-circuited by the fast-moving blaze, which began on a nearby construction site, then leaped to the middle floors of the high-rise co-op. Security officers then went through the building banging on doors, Waldron said.

Firefighters also went through the building checking each apartment, officials said.

By most accounts, the evacuation was orderly.

“There wasn’t any commotion or panic,” said one 87-year-old resident.

Some evacuees took elevators--against the instructions in the building’s emergency plan--but Jack McCulloch, 62, whose 12th-story apartment was extensively damaged, walked down the 12 flights of stairs with his wife.

Like many residents, McCulloch’s wife, Catherine, was awakened by the sound of an explosion, apparently from the fire site across the street.

The couple looked out their window and saw the flames, then called building security and were told to evacuate. “It happened so fast all you could do was put on your robe and go,” Catherine McCulloch said.

Albert Waxenberg, whose apartment is on the 10th floor, described a calm evacuation. Awakened by the sound of windows cracking under the pressure of the heat, he and his wife donned robes and made it to the elevator. “The evacuation was handled very well.”

“We lost everything,” said Waxenberg. “The only thing is, I’m alive and Mrs. Waxenberg is as well.”

An 89-year-old disabled woman, one of the last to be rescued, became trapped with her nurse on the 11th floor. Firefighters made their way to the woman and one, Steve Hall, shed his breathing equipment, hoisted the woman on his back and carried her down to safety. “When we got there, they had done what they were supposed to do. They had shut the doors. . . . They were sitting on the bed,” said Hall, who carried the woman down to the lawn in front of the building. “She was a little stiff, (but) she said thank you.”

Fire officials credited the presence of smoke detectors in many of the apartments for alerting residents to the danger, thus permitting an orderly evacuation.

Stace said some of those alarms detected smoke from the construction site fire next door and sounded before the Wilshire Terrace building actually ignited. That gave people extra time to make their way down the stairs.

Also, residents said they were familiar with fire escape plans. “They gave everybody a notice of what they were supposed to do,” said 64-year-old Della MacDonald, who was out of the building when the fire occurred. MacDonald said she and other residents kept escape routes and other information attached to the back of their front doors.

As they left, residents also knocked on neighbors’ doors and made sure others were aware of the danger, Stace said.

As residents assembled downstairs, firefighters were able to check them off, using a current list of who was in the building that was provided by security officers. Parsons said that list helped alert firefighters to the trapped 89-year-old woman.

But there were complaints.

Solomon Baker, 87, who with his wife, Betty, made their way to safety from the 12th floor, complained about a lack of fire drills. A resident of the building for 25 years, Solomon said, “We’ve never had a drill. . . . We should definitely have one.”