Rescuers Save Tenants in Blaze at Apartment

A South Pasadena neighborhood banded together early Monday to rescue a 75-year-old great-grandmother and others from their burning apartments as flames, possibly set by a serial arsonist, damaged a building and destroyed seven cars.

No one was injured in the blaze, thought to have been set by an arsonist suspected of five other fires in about a month in the community. Investigators said the other arsons involved parked cars. Monday’s fire, if it is the work of the same person, would mark the first occupied building to be burned.

“These fires are increasing,” South Pasadena Fire Chief William Eisle said.

Fire officials say the arsonist is an apparent copycat of a more prolific firebug who has set 20 carport fires in other areas of the San Gabriel Valley.

Monday’s blaze was spotted by Luke Martinez, a 19-year-old Highland Park resident. Martinez said he had just gotten off work at a local coffeehouse about 12:30 a.m. when he saw the flames a block away.

Martinez and 21-year-old co-worker Frank Jones said they piled into Jones’ Datsun and sped to the fire, which was engulfing several cars and other vehicles parked in carports beneath a nine-unit apartment complex in the 800 block of Magnolia Street. The flames were licking at the underside of one apartment, where Deborah DelMoral, 75, and her 35-year-old mentally disabled granddaughter were sleeping.

Jones said he honked his horn and the young men began hollering to rouse the neighborhood. Their cries woke Gus Hyland, a retiree who has lived across the street for 35 years.

Hyland saw the flames. “All I could think of was Deborah in that apartment,” he said.

As Hyland raced across the street he heard three explosions--blazing car tires detonating. Flames climbed up the side of the building. Hyland, Martinez and Jones said they dashed inside the complex and began pounding on doors.

DelMoral, who had been awakened by Jones’ honking, opened her door. “She was trying to find her purse and shoes and I told her there was no time,” Hyland said. He helped her down the stairs to safety.

“He was my savior,” DelMoral said of Hyland.

Hyland returned to the apartment to rescue DelMoral’s granddaughter. Jones and Martinez led the other residents to safety as flames leaped into the air and fire engines pulled up.

Even as that rescue unfolded, authorities said, a sport utility vehicle had been set afire two blocks west on Magnolia. That fits a pattern set the night of June 4, when another carport was set ablaze at about the same time as two nearby vehicles, the fire chief said. In May, another car was set on fire.

Eisle said those arsons may be the work of a firebug emulating an arsonist who has set 20 fires, inflicting $2 million in damages in neighboring Alhambra, Monterey Park and San Gabriel carports.

There have been no injuries in the South Pasadena arsons, but were it not for the heroics of Jones, Martinez and Hyland, Eisle said, the situation Monday could have been grim.

“There could have been a lot of life lost,” he said.

Monday morning, TV cameras captured Hyland--who when asked his age, replied “pushing 60”--quietly raking his lawn. Meanwhile, Martinez and Jones surveyed the charred remains of DelMoral’s apartment.

Officials estimated the damage at $200,000, not counting the seven scorched cars. But the three rescuers were modest.

Jones summed up the trio’s feelings: “We didn’t think this was going to be a big thing.”