Fire at Show-Biz Hospital Leaves Woman Critical

An 87-year-old woman was critically burned in an early morning fire Monday in a cottage at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, which failed to call to report the blaze, a Fire Department spokesman said.

Firefighters were alerted instead by an alarm system, which may have delayed the response to the emergency, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

Firefighters and paramedics arrived less than 10 minutes after the fire was reported at 2:17 a.m., but were unaware of the extent of the blaze or that there was a victim, Humphrey said.

Josephine Codd, who worked for more than two decades as a nurse at 20th Century Fox, suffered second- and third-degree burns over 60% of her body after the fire broke out in her cottage at the health care and retirement-home complex for people in the movie and TV industries, Humphrey said.

Firefighters discovered Codd badly burned but conscious, lying on the ground outside her unit.

An ambulance was summoned and arrived 14 minutes later, Humphrey said.

She was taken to West Hills Medical Center and later transferred to the Grossman Burn Center at the Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center, where she is listed in critical condition, according to a burn center spokesman.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze in about 30 minutes, and fire officials still investigating the incident. They are focusing on a small natural-gas heater in the building as the fire’s possible cause, Humphrey said. Witnesses said they heard an explosion shortly before the fire was reported, he added.

In addition to severe burns, Codd had a cut on her left arm and will undergo further testing for injuries, said Sherman Oaks Hospital spokesman Larry Weinberg.

“For a woman her age to sustain an injury of this significance is very, very grave,” he said.

Codd was the only resident injured in the building, which has four units, said Carol Pfannkuche, a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture and Television Hospital at 23388 Mulholland Drive. The building sustained about $250,000 in damage, according to fire officials.

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Humphrey said the quality of hospital care, not speed of response, most often determines a burn patient’s survival. But he added: “Had we known earlier [about the victim], that would have been ideal,” he said. “We could have helped her alleviate her pain to make her more comfortable and give her more will to survive.”

Pfannkuche declined to comment on the motion-picture hospital’s response except to say the facility has an “excellent safety record.”

“This is an isolated incident,” she said.

John Gordon, a spokesman for the state Department of Social Services, said Monday that his agency last inspected the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in August. At that time, the facility received eight citations and was fined $300 for a variety of violations. These included lack of “No Smoking, Oxygen Tanks in Use” signs and failure to inform the Fire Department in writing about the oxygen tank usage, he said.

A representative of the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety was unable to access the hospital’s inspection records Monday.

Facility residents were shaken by the incident.

“She’s the sweetest person,” said 77-year-old Joe Paz, a former singer and dancer who occasionally shopped with Codd at the mall across the street from the hospital. “I hope she’s all right.”