Boy, 6, Burned in Apartment Blaze Leaves the Hospital : Sherman Oaks: Jose Moreno-Fuentes was hurt in the suspected arson on Grand Avenue. Mother and brothers are still hospitalized.

He walked with a limp, but it was enough that 6-year-old Jose Moreno-Fuentes was allowed to leave the hospital Wednesday--the first of his family to be able to do so after a suspected arson destroyed his apartment and injured him, his brothers and their mother two weeks ago.

“This is the start of going home. This is his early Christmas,” said Richard Grossman, Jose’s doctor and the director of the Sherman Oaks Burn Center.

“Get outta here, young fella,” Grossman playfully told the youngster, who was feted with cake and punch by the burn center’s staff as a farewell gesture Wednesday afternoon.

Jose, his two brothers and their mother, Melina, had been hospitalized since the Nov. 15 blaze that swept through their downtown Grand Avenue residential hotel, killing three people.

Jose suffered burns to 15% of his body, mostly on his right arm and thigh. His mother and 9-year-old brother Juan were more severely injured and are still in serious condition at the burn center while 2-year-old Gerald Isaac remains on a respirator at County-USC Medical Center.

“But today’s kind of a happy day,” Grossman said, beaming at the shy, dark-haired boy who clutched a helium-filled balloon in one hand and a sucker in the other before leaving the hospital where he underwent three skin-graft surgeries.

It was also an emotional day for Jose’s father, Juan Moreno-Fuentes, who was moved by the kindness of strangers.

For the first time, Moreno-Fuentes, 40, met the man who last week offered to pay for six months’ rent in the family’s new Westside apartment as well as donate $3,000. For several seconds Moreno-Fuentes locked Jim Lucero of Burbank in a tearful embrace, managing only to whisper in Spanish that his gratitude came with “much heart.”

Lucero, owner of the Smoke House Restaurant in Burbank, said news reports of the family’s plight prompted him to dig into his pocketbook.

“So many burn victims in one family,” said Lucero, 48, accompanied Wednesday by his son, Adam. “Our family has been very successful for 47 years, so it’s time to give back to the community.”

Moreno-Fuentes and his two daughters, who escaped the fire with only minor injuries, also thanked the hospital staff and the Super Shuttle company, which has provided them with transportation between the burn center and County-USC Medical Center. It was one of Super Shuttle’s ubiquitous blue vans Wednesday that carried little Jose and family members away from the burn center.

But Jessica Moreno-Fuentes, 14, knew that they would be back soon to visit her mother and Juan, who remain swathed in bandages.

“I’m glad that they’re in good hands,” she said.