Gas Odors Reported Before Motion Picture Home Fire, Official Says

A maintenance log shows that gas odors were reported two weeks ago near a bungalow that caught fire this week at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital, critically injuring an 87-year-old resident, a state official said Tuesday.

Josephine Codd, who was in critical condition Tuesday with burns over 60% of her body, had also complained of the odor for several months, relatives and friends said.

David Tillman, president and chief executive of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, which operates the Woodland Hills complex, said the facility had investigated the reports but could not find the source of the problem.

“We’d been aware there were concerns,” he said. But maintenance workers employed by the retirement home could not find the source of any gas leak, he said.

While the cause of Monday’s fire was under investigation, Tillman confirmed that the bungalow was heated by a gas-powered wall unit.

“I want to emphasize how horrible we all feel that someone was hurt at a place where there is an opportunity for an improved quality of life,” he said.

The maintenance log shows that a gas smell was reported near Codd’s home in Bungalow 19 on Feb. 14, according to Blanca Barna of the state Department of Social Services, which regulates retirement homes and reviewed the logs after Monday’s fire.

Barna said agency officials are seeking to determine if the retirement home workers were qualified to investigate the problem.

The log also shows that there was a reported problem Feb. 19 with a wall heater in the bungalow, which has four residence units, Barna said. The nature of the problem and whether it was resolved were not immediately clear, she added.

Fire officials are still trying to determine the cause of the fire, but investigators are focusing on the wall heater, said Jim Wells, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The 40-acre complex includes a hospital and residential units for sick and retired movie industry veterans. Codd was a nurse for 20th Century Fox and is the widow of Fox Treasurer Jack B. Codd, who died in the 1980s, said Codd’s step-grandson, Bruce Gregg.

He said Codd began alerting hospital officials to a gas smell in her room in September and complained about it to them as recently as Thursday.

He added that she suspected that the gas was coming from outside the room. “I remember her commenting that there were flowers dying on the outside of the house,” he said.

Gregg said he noticed during a visit to the hospital about a year ago that a trench had been dug outside Codd’s bungalow. Fund President Tillman said work had been done near the bungalow but was unsure what the purpose of it was.

The Fire Department is reviewing reports that Codd had complained about the gas odor before the fire, said Battalion Chief Daryl Arbuthnott.

“At this point we don’t know if she made the complaints,” Arbuthnott said. “Our arson investigators are looking into every aspect of the fire.”

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Times staff writers Karen Robinson-Jacobs and Michael Krikorian contributed to this story.