Woman Dies in Apartment Complex Fire

An early morning fire in a city-owned apartment complex for the elderly and disabled killed one woman and left several other people injured Friday, even as firefighters and other residents battled thick, black smoke to help frightened tenants to safety.

“It was a total panic,” said Steve Katz, 35, the youngest resident of the building where the fire broke out. Katz shepherded four frightened residents to safety with equipment from the earthquake kit he keeps by his bed.

“The stairwell went black,” Katz said. “I had a lantern. When I entered the stairwell, there were a bunch of people there who couldn’t see where they were going. I basically lit their way out.”

Los Angeles firefighters found Ileen Hyemme Shane, 54, crumpled by the elevator in her bathrobe and slippers, clutching her purse.

“It appears she tried to make it out of the facility, as evidenced by the fact she had her purse with her,” said Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier. “She was overcome by the flames, the fire, the smoke or all of the above.”

Shane was identified by the driver’s license she carried in her purse, Carrier said.

The cause of the fire, which did an estimated $125,000 in damage, was under investigation, said city Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells.

The fire in Building E of the seven-building Owensmouth Gardens at 6300 Owensmouth Ave. was reported at 2:46 a.m., Wells said. It took 64 firefighters 34 minutes to douse the flames, he said.

The fire was confined to a third-floor sitting room and hallway, where once-white walls were blackened with soot.

“Anyone who took a gulp of that would go down pretty quick,” Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Butch Rogers said.

Dozens of dazed residents were examined in a triage area set up in the recreation room of the complex. Eight complained of symptoms associated with smoke inhalation and five were taken to local hospitals, where they were diagnosed with mild smoke inhalation and released, Wells said.

Their names were not released.

Arson investigators worked through the morning. After taking a dog through the scene to sniff for clues, they returned with a square of carpet and what appeared to be charred insulation.

As firefighters shoveled soot from a third-floor window, clusters of elderly residents--some in wheelchairs and others using walkers--from Building E and surrounding buildings--sat on benches and sidewalks, surveying the scene.

Phyllis Higgs, 73, said she awoke to the deafening ring of the fire alarm. The third-floor resident said she grabbed her flashlight and dashed toward the stairs before realizing her neighbor was trapped in the apartment next door.

Higgs helped her cane-bearing friend through the fire-resistant doors to the stairway, then went back to get something to put over her own nose, so she could help her friend down.

When she reached the lawn, she saw two more of her neighbors, one partially blind and the other a victim of multiple sclerosis, waving from the window. She alerted firefighters, she said.

“As scared as I was, I did what I did,” she said, surrounded by friends. “I feel like a hero, in a way.”

Throughout the morning terrified relatives of those who live in the building raced to the site, asking about their loved ones.

“My mother lives in the apartment right there,” said one young man who refused to give his name. He was pointing to the gaping hole of the third-floor window, where firefighters still worked. His grandmother clung to his arm.

Owensmouth Gardens is owned and operated by the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles and is federally funded.

It is made up of seven buildings, six of which are residential, and houses 310 residents. Building E consists of 51 units, with about 55 residents, Housing Authority spokesman George McQuade said. More than $2.5 million in improvements had been made to the Owensmouth complex after the Northridge earthquake, McQuade said.

The Housing Authority conducts a minimum of two fire drills a year at all its facilities, including Owensmouth Gardens, he said. Those drills require the elderly and disabled residents to don orange jackets, carry flashlights and work with fire wardens.

“That’s why a lot of them got out alive,” he said. “We have a task force, so they knew what to do.”

But some residents said Friday that drills consist of nothing more than ringing the fire alarm. They are not required to leave the building.

Owensmouth Gardens is not a state-licensed board-and-care facility. Even so, Phyllis Indianer, 52, of Tarzana, who leads a group of concerned citizens seeking tougher fire safety laws at such homes, expressed outrage Friday.

“I am so angry,” she said. “I just can’t see why we treat our dogs and animals better than we do our seniors.”

Indianer’s group says all residential care facilities should be required to house senior citizens who use wheelchairs and walkers in ground-level apartments. The same should apply to housing like Owensmouth Gardens, she said.

All residents of Building E have been temporarily relocated to a nearby hotel, McQuade said.