Firefighters Face Their Biggest Challenge : Mobilization: Crews strain to control five different types of blazes.

Marshaling engines and manpower from across the county, the Los Angeles Fire Department found itself battling not just a high-rise fire early Saturday but at least five different kinds of wind-scattered fires that skipped and jumped across the upscale Westside neighborhood.

The daunting task strained city Fire Department resources to the limit, forcing quick decisions over where to start and how to deploy what officials called the largest firefighting force mobilized for a building fire in Los Angeles history.

“This made the First Interstate look like a dumpster fire,” said Firefighter Larry Horner, referring to last year’s inferno in what was, at the time, downtown’s tallest skyscraper.

Even as firetrucks rolled into the Wilshire Corridor after the first alarm at 3:37 a.m., the men and women assigned to the task knew they had a fire like no other.

Flames that started at the construction site of a fancy condominium complex were swiftly engulfing floors of the 14-story Wilshire Terrace apartment building next door, and glowing embers were spraying southward across Wilshire Boulevard like a Fourth of July sparkler.

Soon, refugees--clad in everything from bathrobes and slippers to hastily grabbed mink coats and jewels--were filling the streets. They watched in shock and disbelief as their homes burned.

“For the first arriving companies, it was looking like a war zone,” said Fire Chief Donald O. Manning. “It was a lot more than we could handle very quickly.”

Manning said more than 400 firefighters from about 80 companies joined the effort, with additional units on call from the county and the cities of Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Culver City.

At least seven firefighters suffered minor burns or heat and smoke-related injuries, including three who were burned on the face and hands.

In addition to fires at the high-rise and construction site, Manning said, Fire Department companies had to tackle blazes in a “low-rise” three-story apartment building, single-family homes and triplexes.

In all, firefighters attacked blazes at 13 buildings and two construction sites. Some properties were vacant; others required evacuation of dozens of people. Each posed a different challenge and different problems, Manning said.

Fire officials said Wilshire Terrace received the most attention in part because it represented the greatest potential disaster, had the building not been safely evacuated.

Tired and covered with soot, firefighters from as far away as San Pedro, the San Fernando Valley and Echo Park rested late Saturday morning outside the Wilshire Terrace and recalled what they said was an arduous battle to chase the fire as it spread upward from floor to floor.

Although the temperature inside the burning Wilshire Terrace apartments was estimated at 600 degrees, firefighters in protective clothing were able to combat the fire from the inside out, the most effective approach in battling building fires, authorities said. The firefighters moved from apartment to apartment, broke down doors and, with hoses hooked up in the stairwell, “pushed the fire out the window,” said Capt. Lane Kemper.

The leather shield that says LAFD on several firefighters’ helmets had been melted by the heat.

“It was mass confusion up there,” said ladder operator Dane Jackson, who like many of his colleagues was working a double shift. “Hose lines everywhere, men everywhere. It was real clogged up. Very tough.”

The men in his company, Jackson said, went through four or five 20-minute air bottles apiece.

The concrete and steel construction of the building helped in slowing the fire’s pace and allowed time for crews to set up on each floor, Deputy Fire Chief Craig Drummond said.

“Otherwise, it would have gone up like a lumber pile,” Drummond said.

Despite the mammoth effort of the Fire Department, several residents in damaged houses and buildings other than Wilshire Terrace complained that engine companies were too slow in responding and seemed to be poorly deployed. In one case, a house went up in flames after a fire company had come and gone.

They also questioned the decision of the 104-station Los Angeles Fire Department to rely on its massive but far-flung resources instead of enlisting the aid of closer departments such as Beverly Hills, whose main fire house is only a few minutes from the blaze.

Some Los Angeles city fire engines arrived more than an hour after the first alarm. Battalion Chief Mike Littleton said his South-Central-based unit arrived about 5 a.m.--”and there was still lots of fire.”

Inspector Ed Reed, a city fire spokesman, said the department’s strategy may have been different “if this was on the border” between Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. “We don’t have an arbitrary system where we’ll deplete Beverly Hills to fight our fire.

“Those are on-the-spot, emergency decisions that are made,” Reed said. “Trying to second-guess those decisions is very, very difficult.” Asked whether the operation at such major fires is chaotic, Reed said “of course.”

Only three blocks south of the Wilshire blaze, a house on Holmby Avenue was destroyed, another was extensively damaged and a third had minor roof damage. Several residents complained that firefighters were slow in responding to calls to 911 and even personal pleas for help.

A few blocks south on Kinnard Street, Al and Elizabeth Javor saw their house go up in flames after a visit by firefighters. After a small fire started on their roof, the Javors turned a hose on the roof and an engine company arrived to finish the job. Firefighters punched a few holes into the cedar shingle roof and got at hot spots with a fire extinguisher.

“They were here about 10 minutes,” recalled the Javors’ son, Les, visiting for Christmas. “When they left they said, ‘Keep an eye out.’ That’s all they said.”

More than an hour later, Elizabeth Javor was watching as the roof suddenly caught fire and spread rapidly, destroying the roof and ceiling. Said Les Javor, “They must have missed a spot.”

Elden and Janet Fox, both prosecutors in the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, estimated that firetrucks arrived more than 30 minutes after their call. Like many residents south of Wilshire, they squirted garden hoses on their neighbors’ homes while fire engines focused on Wilshire Boulevard.

Later Saturday, many residents who had been evacuated from Wilshire Terrace milled about until they were allowed to re-enter the building to recover some of their property.

This came as good news to Charles Jawetz, an elderly resident who, like so many, had fled with due haste.

“I grabbed this hat that I haven’t had on for five years and a warm coat,” he said, “and forgot my pants.”

THE WILSHIRE CORRIDOR FIRE

Fire’s starting point--Northwest corner of Devon Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard. Four-story condominium under construction. Destroyed.

10345 Wilshire Blvd.--Two-story apartment house, the Devonshire. Received major damage; four vehicles damaged or destroyed.

850 Beverly Glen Blvd.--Fourteen-story co-op apartment building, the Wilshire Terrace. Sustained major damage to its east side on floors two through 14.

10366 Wilshire Blvd.--Three-story apartment house. Heavily damaged, one car destroyed.

10380 Wilshire Blvd.--Construction site. Crane platform burned, construction materials destroyed.

10367 Ashton Ave.--Triplex apartment. Damage to wood-shingled roof and to attic.

10373 Ashton Ave.--Two-story single-family home. Minor roof damage.

10379 Ashton Ave.--Triplex apartment. Damage to wood shingled roof and to attic.

10376 Ashton Ave.--Single-family home. Minor roof damage.

10380 Ashton Ave.--Single-family home. Minor roof damage.

1328 Holmby Ave.--One-story single-family home. Destroyed.

1322 Holmby Ave.--Single-family home. Major roof damage.

1309 Holmby Ave.--Single-family home. Minor roof damage.

10447 Kinnard Ave.--Single-family home. Roof and attic destroyed.

10451 Kinnard Ave.--One-story single-family home. Minor roof damage and broken glass.

Source: Los Angeles Fire Department; Times Staff Writers.