2 Die, 6 Hurt as Flames Roar Through Apartment Building

A deadly explosion and fire turned a weathered Hollywood apartment building--which less than a year ago was riddled with fire safety violations--into a chaotic inferno early Thursday. Two residents died and at least six people, including two children and four firefighters, were injured.

Within minutes of receiving a 3:41 a.m. emergency call, firefighters arrived at the four-story Palomar Hotel at 5473 Santa Monica Blvd. to find flames soaring through the building and residents screaming and scrambling for their lives.

Families were crammed onto fire escapes, hanging out of windows on every floor and clinging to ledges, begging for help.

Norma Galindo, 38, passed her two small children out a fourth-floor window to firefighters before falling to her death. “If she had waited 10 seconds, they would have had her,” said Fire Capt. Steve Ruda, who described his firefighters as anguished over their inability to save the woman.

The woman’s 3-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl were in critical condition, suffering from smoke inhalation and minor burns, said Childrens Hospital Los Angeles spokesman Steve Rutledge.

“The fire was right up on her,” said Patrick O’Leary, a 38-year-old resident who had been working a late shift at a nearby adult bookstore when a customer alerted him that his home was on fire. “We kept saying, ‘Hold on, hold on.’ . . . She was screaming.”

When she fell, just as firefighters were hoisting a longer ladder to reach her, “Everybody was horrified, they couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Los Angeles Fire Capt. Rick Godinez said Galindo “did what she had to do to save her children. Her last moments were pure terror.”

In a building where most have only a nodding acquaintance with one another, those who knew Galindo remembered her as a woman devoted to her neatly dressed children. “They were a close-knit family,” said tenant Walter Deal, 58.

A man, still unidentified late Thursday, was found dead on the second floor of the building. The building owner’s brother, who served as its resident manager, was missing late Thursday and family members feared the body was his.

Four firefighters were injured. One, who had a fractured clavicle, was expected to be released from a hospital Thursday evening, Los Angeles Fire Capt. Richard Andrade said. Another, who injured his back, was treated and released.

Two other firefighters suffered more serious injuries and were hospitalized at the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks. Jeff Robles, 27, suffered second-degree burns to his face and third-degree burns to his left arm, according to hospital spokesman Larry Weinberg. Jared Bennett, 34, suffered second-degree burns to an ear and third-degree burns on his legs. Both are expected to be released in a week, Weinberg said.

The fire, which started on the bottom floor and moved up to the roof through the center of the building, consumed the only staircase, forcing residents of the 48-unit structure to flee through windows and down fire escapes. All the injuries sustained by firefighters occurred when they fell through floors weakened by fire.

“It went up like a Christmas tree,” said one resident who escaped and watched the fire burn fast and furiously.

Fire officials said the rapid spread raised suspicions that the blaze was not accidental, although their investigation was just beginning Thursday.

“Normally you would not have a fire advance that quickly from the time of the first call to the time the first [firefighting] units get there,” said Andrade. “When fire travels that quickly through a building of this type, it leads you to believe something out of the norm happened.”

An explosion on the bottom floor ripped through the building, jostling residents and blowing glass and even doors to the building across Santa Monica Boulevard. It was not immediately clear whether the explosion or fire occurred first.

However, since there were two fatalities, a variety of authorities descended upon the building, immediately declaring the area a crime scene to preserve evidence they need for the investigation, Andrade said.

City arson investigators, police, agents from the FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and Los Angeles County sheriff’s search and rescue team dogs scoured the scene for clues to the cause of the fire and blast. A 25-member ATF national response team is expected to join the investigation today.

The ground floor of the building housed an optical shop and a small church. FBI and ATF agents routinely investigate any fire involving a church to determine if a hate crime was committed, according to FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin. There is no indication, so far, that the church was a target.

Residents of the building were housed at a temporary Red Cross shelter set up six blocks away at Lemon Grove Recreation Center.

Mayor James K. Hahn talked to investigators on the scene and looked inside the building. “It looks like a bomb exploded inside,” Hahn said. If code violations contributed to the fire, “the owner should be prosecuted severely,” said Hahn, who as city attorney oversaw an office that prosecuted the building owner last year.

City attorneys took Juan Jose Ortizr to court for code violations “in the area of fire regulation, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, blocked fire escapes, faulty fire doors, plus building and safety and health violations,” said Ben Austin, spokesman for the city attorney.

Ortiz pleaded no contest and was placed on probation, fined $8,100 and ordered to bring the building into compliance. In March, however, the city attorney’s office, believing Ortiz had failed to do so, asked Superior Court Judge Randolph A. Moore to hold him in violation of his probation and have him jailed, said Rubin Harsoyo, a deputy city attorney who handled the case. The judge agreed only to order him to correct some of the violations, Harsoyo said.

But Jeff Lesser of Encino, Ortiz’s attorney at the time, denied that the city had sought to send his client to jail.

Ortiz’s current attorney, George Sellers, said he believes Thursday’s fire had nothing to do with the violations for which his client was cited last year.

Ortiz has “continually upgraded the building as required by law, to the limit of his resources,” he said.

Sellers visited the burned building Thursday with Ortiz’s father, Don Lewellen, who defended his son. “There were no slummy conditions in that building,” said Lewellen.

Many residents agreed. “They listen to our complaints. There were no roaches, no rats,” said David Conwany, who has lived in the building for two years.

Sprinklers and fire detectors were in place, according to Andrade, “but whether they activated like they were supposed to is not known.” The building had an adequate number of fire escapes, though it lacked multiple exits required in more modern buildings.

The fire spokesman said the cause of the explosion and the fire “could go either way--intentional or accidental.” He said possible explanations included a gas leak, illegal storage of flammable liquids, and arson.

“In this case, there was such a large volume of fire, it would have to be a large gas leak,” he said, “but it’s still within the realm of possibility.”

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Times staff writers Carla Hall, Kenneth Reich, Noaki Schwartz, Eric Malnic, Josh Meyer, Robert J. Lopez and Dalondo Moultrie contributed to this story.

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Scene of the Fire

A fire began at the Palomar Hotel as an explosion rocked the 48-unit building early Thursday. A woman fell to her death after safely passing her two children to firefighter, and a man died inside the building.

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Past Fires

Los Angeles hotel and apartment fires with multiple fatalities:

May 3, 1993, apartment building, 330 S. Burlington Ave., 10 dead.

Sept. 4, 1982, Dorothy Mae Apartment-Hotel, 821 Sunset Blvd., 25 dead.

Dec. 20, 1976, Witmer Apartments, 335 S. Witmer St., eight dead.

Nov. 15, 1973, Stratford Apartments, 1735 W. 6th St., 25 dead.

Sept. 13, 1970, Ponet Square Hotel, 1249 S. Grand Ave., 19 dead.

March 25, 1952, Hotel Saint George, 115 E. 3rd St., seven dead.

Nov. 18, 1912, Hotel Saint George, 115 E. 3rd St., at least two dead.

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Source: Times archives

Compiled by Maloy Moore