Fire Kills Arleta Woman, Daughter

An Arleta woman and her 7-year-old daughter were killed in a fire that swept through their home early New Year’s morning, officials said.

The victims were identified by relatives as Mercedes Tenorio and her daughter, Linda Alvarez. Survivors said they last saw Linda trying to warn others in the house of the fire.

Five others survived the blaze, although one, identified as Severo Gutierrez, 26, was severely injured.

“He was trying to get back into the house to get others out when we arrived,” said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis. “He had to be restrained.”

Gutierrez was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills and transferred to the burn unit at County-USC Medical Center. A hospital spokesman said Gutierrez was in intensive care suffering from severe smoke inhalation. He was also badly burned.

The other injured, including a firefighter who was burned on his face and a hand, were treated and released.

The fire, which caused an estimated $125,000 damage to the single-story home in the 9900 block of Beachy Avenue, was still under investigation Saturday, Collis said.

“I heard the knock at the door and there were two women and a couple of kids,” said Max Love, a next-door neighbor who called the Fire Department about 3:30 a.m. “They came for help. I looked out and the flames were really shooting out.”

The women were friends visiting Tenorio from out of town. One of the two boys was Tenorio’s son and the other was a visitor.

Tenorio and her daughter were unable to escape from the house, which quickly filled with smoke, fire officials said.

Survivors later told relatives and neighbors that they didn’t see Tenorio after the fire started. But the daughter had been helping to alert others in the house.

“She died while trying to get them out,” said John Tenorio, Mercedes’ brother, standing outside the house. He had been called from work and arrived at the scene in time to talk to some of the survivors.

“The little girl was banging on doors to get them up,” he said.

Fire officials said they believe the girl became disoriented. Firefighters found her in her brother’s bedroom.

Mercedes Tenorio had two older daughters that had moved away from home, John Tenorio said. He said his sister had worked hard to achieve financial security since arriving in Los Angeles from El Salvador in the mid-1970s.

“She had nothing when she came here, I lent her the money to come,” he said.

Since then, he said, she had owned several small businesses, including a bar in Pacoima. “I think she was the only woman in the whole San Fernando Valley to own a cantina, “ he said. “That took a lot of guts.”

Mercedes Tenorio bought the three-bedroom house in 1987 and put in a front garden of succulents, roses and other plants. The garden survived the fire, which gutted the interior of the house, but left much of the exterior intact.

She also had several dogs, a couple of which wandered around the fenced-in driveway Saturday afternoon. Animal shelter officials had been called.