Boy, 2, Saved From Blaze; 1 Body Found

Tim Rogers thought he had retired from the firefighting business in October. But on Friday he was back in action rescuing a 2-year-old boy from a suspicious fire in a Long Beach apartment, where one person was found dead.

Firefighters responding to the blaze found a body so badly charred they were unable to determine whether it was a man or a woman, Long Beach fire Capt. Keith Seward said.

Rogers, 38, was helping a friend do computer work at her house Friday when he heard a police helicopter warning residents to evacuate the apartment building in the 800 block of Linden Avenue.

Stepping outside, he saw smoke coming from a fourth-floor window just doors away.

“A light switch just went off in my body,” said the former Laguna Beach firefighter, who immediately ran into the building.

Knocking on as many doors as possible to alert residents, he ran to the fourth floor of the 36-unit building and grabbed an emergency fire hose in the hallway.

After spraying water on the apartment’s doorknob, he got on his knees, opened the door and waited for a wave of fire to roll out as oxygen rushed in.

“It was really dark and smoky, and I could hardly see anything,” he recalled.

Then from behind the door he heard a little boy cry.

“I couldn’t believe it. In all my 17 years as a firefighter, I have never had to rescue a baby from a burning building,” he said. “I didn’t think anyone could be alive in here.”

Rogers grabbed the child and ran to a Long Beach traffic control officer standing in the hall. “I just yelled, ‘Baby! Go to the hospital right now! Don’t stop!’ ” said Rogers, a Huntington Beach resident.

Minutes later, Long Beach firefighters arrived and knocked down the blaze, officials said. The fire was confined to one apartment.

Arson investigators said they are looking into the possibility that flammable liquids were used to start the fire, reported at 10:09 a.m.

The 2-year-old was treated for smoke inhalation and was listed in good condition.

Long Beach police detectives are investigating the death as a homicide. They have released no names.

Apartment manager Bertha Sinohui said she rented the one-bedroom apartment in January to Guadalupe Villarreal, 25, her husband, Cyrus Marshall, 32, and their son, Isaiah Obadiah Marshall.

Rogers tried to resume his computer work, but with difficulty.

“I’m just having trouble concentrating,” he said. “It’s all setting in now.”