Woman, 2 Children Hurt in Fire

Three people--two of them children--suffered minor smoke inhalation Monday afternoon during a fire in a three-story apartment house, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman said.

The blaze, reported shortly before 2:40 p.m., started in a second-floor storage unit and caused $28,500 in damage to the building in the 15000 block of Vanowen Street, department spokesman Jim Wells said.

It took 45 firefighters 14 minutes to extinguish the flames, Wells said.

One apartment unit sustained smoke damage, displacing three people.

The injured woman and the children, ages 2 1/2 and 5, were taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, which is across the street from where the fire occurred.