Apartments Burn; Fireman Survives a Scare

A fast-moving wall of fire roared across the common attic of an apartment complex Monday, engulfing a firefighter who plunged through a burning roof and leaving 17 families homeless.

Amazingly, the firefighter walked out unscathed a few minutes later. And although hundreds of residents were at home in the Ridgewood Gardens complex on North Temple Street, none were injured.

The four-alarm fire was reported at 4:09 p.m. and spread quickly. As firefighters from four cities converged and helicopters sprayed water from overhead, fleeing residents watched in horror as their apartments were enveloped in choking black smoke and a solid line of orange flame.

Within 15 minutes, the fire destroyed all but the shell of one building in the sprawling 368-unit apartment complex.

Fire Capt. Jerry Yost was fighting flames on the roof when it gave way and he fell into the inferno. His fall was broken by an open-air balcony, and he radioed for help. After he was rescued, Yost went back to fight the blaze, according to a Fire Department spokesman.

“My heart just almost stopped,” said Firefighter Mike Prey, who saw the fall. “That was my captain.”

Prey said Yost was warning him to turn around and go back “when he dropped through.”

Prey felt his own right boot sink in the hot, spongy roof beneath him, but climbed off safely.

Yost, sopping wet and covered with soot and grime, declined to comment on his fall, saying he did not want to worry his family. Although a camera captured his fall, Yost said, “I don’t know if I want to see it.”

Complex manger Cesar Nacuspag was one of the first to notice the fire, which started in a vacant second-floor apartment above a laundry room. Nacuspag, a maintenance man and Christian Genchi, a 14-year-old boy who was playing on his bicycle outside, ran to call the Fire Department and grab fire extinguishers. By the time they returned, the fire had burst from the apartment and through the glass patio door and was spreading rapidly across the two-story building.

“We started running for No. 86,” the second-floor apartment, Nacuspag said. “The corridor was all filled with black smoke and you could barely see by that time. All we could do was open the door and that was it; we had to leave.”

Genchi, an eighth-grader at Kraemer Middle school, said he pulled a rag over his nose and ran the length of the first floor hallway pounding on doors and yelling for people to get out.

Residents said there were tears and confusion as people ran outside when the smoke began to fill the apartment buildings.

“There was a lot of fire,” said Esmeral Rodriguez, “My little brother and sister were screaming and crying.”

Resident Bertha Ortega fled with no shoes, clad in only a tank top and shorts. Outside the flaming building, she saw her friend, Lucy Quinonez, 15, on the balcony of her smoke-filled second-story apartment.

“She was hanging from the railing and I helped her down,” she said.

A shaken Quinonez cried as she watched firefighters hose the fire that burned her family’s home. She and Ortega hugged and clutched each other.

“All my belongings are burning right now,” said Ortega’s 15-year-old brother, Jose.

Residents said they were grateful that no one was hurt. “I started looking for my wife and son, and thank God they were safe,” said Jorge Luna, who had just arrived home when the fire erupted.