High-Rise Fire Kills 2; 250 Residents Flee

Fire raged through a 19th-floor condominium in a Century City high-rise on Tuesday, killing two people, injuring seven others and forcing about 250 residents to flee in their nightclothes.

Six Beverly Hills police officers, responding to a pre-dawn call reporting a woman screaming at an address near the Los Angeles city line, crossed into Los Angeles and scrambled up 18 flights of stairs to lead and carry several infirm residents--some in wheelchairs--to safety.

“One of the officers grabbed a hose and tried to fight the fire,” Beverly Hills Police Lt. Frank Salcido said. “The others went from room to room, banging on doors to wake up the occupants. . . . One officer carried an elderly woman down the stairs in his arms.”

Christine Briggs, 22, who lives in a condominium next to Unit 1904, where the two people died, said that as she and her roommate, attorney Henry Cowan, hurried down the stairs, they met Los Angeles firefighters--summoned by the Beverly Hills police--on their way up.

“We told them the fire was on the 19th floor, so they just kept on going,” Briggs said.

Firefighters found the body of a man beneath smoldering debris in a bathtub in Unit 1904. The body of another person--too charred to determine age or sex--was found in a bedroom. The coroner’s office was attempting to identify both victims.

Fire officials said it took about 50 minutes to quell the blaze at the 20-story building at 2170 Century Park East. Despite a lack of fixed sprinklers, the fire was confined to Unit 1904, although there was some smoke damage on the floor above and water damage to the floor below. The cause of the blaze was not immediately determined, officials said.

Fire Department officials, who said that sprinkler systems might have saved lives and reduced damage, expressed hope Tuesday that the Los Angeles City Council will soon enact an ordinance that would make such systems mandatory in residential buildings.

Opponents argue that the cost of installing such systems would lead to rent increases that would put thousands of low- and middle-income tenants out on the streets.

Two elderly residents, a man and woman evacuated from the building, were treated at Century City Community Hospital for medical problems aggravated by the fire.

Five of the six Beverly Hills police officers who dashed up the stairs to help evacuate the building were later treated at the UCLA Medical Center for smoke inhalation.

“We don’t feel like we were heroes in any respect,” one of the Beverly Hills officers, Brad Cornelius, said later. “It was just a job that needed to be done.”

Salcido said Beverly Hills police received a 911 call at 1:43 a.m. from a resident on Shirley Place, just inside the Beverly Hills line. The resident reported hearing a woman’s screams.

Officer David Armour, 32, was the first to respond to the call.

“Armour didn’t spot the woman, but he did see the flames and fire coming from the top of the building on Century Park East,” Salcido said. Armour called for backup police help and asked that the Los Angeles Fire Department be notified.

Beverly Hills police officers got there first.

Following standard procedure for high-rise fires, elevator service was shut down to help prevent the spread of the blaze through the shafts. Six officers--Robert Bloore, 32; Kyle Batty, 31; John Crawford, 40; Marcello Rodriguez, 23; Cornelius, 32, and Armour--began the arduous climb to the upper floors.

At a news conference later in the day at the Beverly Hills Police Department, Batty said a resident on his way down the stairs said something about an elderly woman on one of the upper floors who was unable to walk.

He found the woman in her condominium.

“I said, ‘You have to go,’ ” Batty recalled. “She said, ‘I can’t.’ So I picked her up.” Batty said he carried the woman to safety in his arms.

Cornelius said that he and three other officers encountered two invalid residents on a landing.

“We had to physically carry those people all the way down from the 16th floor in their wheelchairs,” Cornelius said. “It was a pretty good workout.”

Firefighters, many burdened with heavy equipment, followed the officers up the stairs. While some battled the flames, others helped awaken residents and led them down and out of the building.

Phyllis Goldberg, who lives in a unit next to the one that burned, said she awoke to “a lot of noise. . . .

“I thought those damned people on the floor above me were moving furniture in the middle of the night,” said Goldberg. “Then I realized I could hear the alarm. Someone was banging on the door, yelling, ‘Get up! Get up!’ It was a fireman and some other man. I was in my nightclothes so I told them, ‘I can’t go out dressed like this.’ I grabbed a robe and we went.”

Goldberg, who said she is “over 50,” said “the hardest part was having to walk down 19 floors.”

Jackie Shannon, another resident of the building, said her main concern as she descended the stairs was that smoke might spread downward from the condominium and hallways on the 19th floor.

“My only thought was that if the stairwells filled with smoke it would have been very serious,” she said. “There were people in wheelchairs (and) a blind person trying to get down.”

The shaken residents of 2170 Century Park East gathered on the pavement in front of the building to gaze at the eerie glow of the fog-shrouded blaze 19 floors above them.

“It was so scary I was shaking,” recalled Eva Chudnof, who watched the fire from a twin tower across a courtyard. “We knew that people were in danger.”

Firefighters said the toughest task they faced was hauling about 100 pounds of equipment apiece--including breathing gear, hose packs and forcible-entry tools such as fire axes and crowbars--up 18 flights of stairs.

“It was a logistical nightmare,” said Fire Capt. Stephen Ruda, one of 125 Los Angeles firefighters to respond to the blaze.

“It was very hot, smoky and confined,” said Phillip J. Weireter, a Fire Department public information officer. “You (have to) pace yourself so when you get to the fire, you’re not completely exhausted.”

Times staff writers Nieson Himmel and Elaine Woo contributed to this story.

SPRINKLER SYSTEMS: City officials can’t agree on the sprinkler issue. B1

Fatal Fire

Two people died and seven others were injured Tuesday in a blaze that engulfed a condominium at a Century City high-rise. Here’s a look at what happened:

1. At 1:43 a.m., a caller on Shirley Place tells Beverly Hills police about a sceaming woman. Police officer responding to the call sees flames coming from a building on Century Park East in Los Angeles.

2. About six Beverly Hills police officers go to site, where 19th-floor condo on the north side is on fire.

* Officers climb 18 flights of stairs to help rescue residents. Several people in wheelchairs are carried down one of three stairwells. More than 250 residents are evacuated.

* 125 firefighters work extinguish blaze about 2:30 a.m.

3. One victim is found in bathroom of Unit 1904; other in bedroom.

Other Damage: Water damage found on 18th floor, smoke damage on 20th.

Sprinkers: Not called for in the residential building. Retrofitting requirement applies to commercial structures.

Injured: Some taken to Century City Hospital across the street from the twin-tower condo complex.