3 Jump to Safety From Burning Apartment

Three people, including a 6-year-old boy, jumped to safety from the window of a blazing second-story apartment early Sunday, aided by a passing security guard who pushed a trash dumpster under the window to break their fall.

The actions of the guard, apparently on his way home from a graveyard shift, probably saved the man, woman and child from more severe injuries in the blaze, which started on a Christmas tree, said Alan Masumoto, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

“Certainly if he had not been passing by, it could have been more tragic,” Masumoto said. “It was pretty heads-up on his part.”

But the guard, who does not work at the building where the fire broke out, didn’t wait for a pat on the back. As soon as firefighters arrived on the scene, he was gone.

“I wish he would have stuck around to take credit for what he had done,” said David Cox, manager of the 23-unit apartment building at 5040 Tujunga Ave. “Because he’s definitely a hero.”

Fire officials did not release the names of the victims, described only as a couple in their 40s and their son.

The man, who tried to put out the fire, suffered third-degree burns over 60% of his body, including his face, back and extremities, said Dr. Raul Lopez at North Hollywood Medical Center, where paramedics first brought the victim.

He was in critical condition and breathing with the aid of a ventilator after being transferred to the burn unit at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, Lopez said.

The woman was treated for smoke inhalation and released from Providence-St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. Fire officials said the boy was treated for smoke inhalation.

After combing the gutted apartment for several hours, investigators determined that the blaze originated on the Christmas tree, said Brian Humphrey, another Fire Department spokesman. The fire gutted the apartment.

He said the child woke up the adults shortly after 9 a.m., telling them that the top of the tree was on fire.

The unidentified security guard apparently saw flames coming from the apartment, jumped a fence to investigate, and found two adults standing naked in the window with flames and smoke pouring out behind them.

He then pushed the industrial-sized trash dumpster under the window and yelled at them to jump.

“It sounded like a bomb going off when the guy landed, because the dumpster was empty,” said Cox, the building manager, who was awakened by the guard’s shouts and came outside to help. “But if that dumpster wasn’t there, they really would have torn themselves up,” Cox said.

Humphrey said 33 people are killed in an average year in the United States as a result of Christmas tree fires, including an average of three per year in Los Angeles.