Fire Destroys 4 Northridge Apartments

Residents escaped unhurt from their flaming 125-unit Northridge apartment complex late Monday night, despite the apparent failure of alarms to alert them.

About 50 residents of the Lassen Village apartments, in the 17700 block of Lassen Street, were displaced by the fire that destroyed at least four units and damaged others, officials said. Damage was estimated at about $1 million.

The fire began about 11:30 p.m. in a garbage bin on the southeast side of the three-story building. Flames raced up a trash chute and ignited the attic and roof, causing a portion of the roof to collapse. Sprinklers designed to douse flames in the trash chute did not activate, allowing the fire to spread upward and into the building, Los Angeles Fire Battalion Chief Robert Franco said.

“Had it activated, it should have had enough water to control the trash chute and keep it from spreading to the roof and walls,” Franco said. “Luckily, no one was killed or injured.”

About 200 firefighters contained the blaze in about two hours, officials said.

Many residents had to be awakened and evacuated by firefighters. “I was dead asleep and a fireman axed down my door and came into my bedroom and woke me up,” said Parish Rahbar, 25, who lived in a third-floor unit.

Several residents said the fire alarms were not working. “I went out in the hall and was pulling the fire alarms, but they were not going off,” said Chris Beloff, 22, whose second-story apartment sustained minor water and smoke damage. “Last week, the fire alarms were going off for no reason. Now, when we needed them, they weren’t there.”

Fire Department officials said they are investigating. “We are trying to confirm that the alarms didn’t work,” Battalion Chief Tom Brennan said.

On Sunday, firefighters responded to a false fire alarm at the complex.

“The alarms malfunctioned Sunday and we are trying to determine what happened during the fire,” said Franco, adding that it is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail to have a faulty fire alarm in an inhabited dwelling.

The apartment manager refused to comment on the reported lack of alarms.

Damage to the building was estimated at $750,000, with an additional $250,000 in lost contents, according to Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.