Fire Chars Angelino Heights Homes

Flames raced though a dense neighborhood in Angelino Heights on Thursday afternoon, destroying or severely damaging six houses and forcing residents to flee with what they could carry.

Firefighters said they rescued three people from one home. Several firefighters escaped from a house just before it caved in.

“It felt like three seconds after we left that the ceiling collapsed,” said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Alex Arriola.

As the flames approached, 13-year-old Eduardo Plata grabbed his pet guinea pig, Marbles; a rabbit; two birds; and a hamster, and ran from his house. He was one of about 30 residents left homeless by the fire.

Eduardo’s sister, Lili Plata, 21, said she was napping in her bedroom when she was awakened by a loud noise.

“I didn’t pay any attention until my dad yelled, ‘Get out! Get Out! The house is going to catch on fire!’ ” she said. “It was so hot, it felt like your flesh would peel off.”

Plata said she grabbed her backpack and ran from the house along with her parents, Eduardo and Marina and their five other children. They escaped unhurt, but the house they had lived in for eight years was severely damaged.

Angelino Heights northwest of downtown is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, made up mostly of small, closely spaced, single-family wooden homes built in the late 19th century. Firefighters said the close spacing and winds that gusted to 25 mph accounted for the rapid spread of the flames.

“It went up fast,” said Ignacio Delao, 24, an exterminator who was working in the neighborhood. “It was just massive.”

“The fire was going from house to house,” firefighter Tim Sharma said. “It was really tough.”

The blaze, of unknown origin, apparently began about 2:45 p.m. in a garage behind a home at East Kensington Road and Bellevue Avenue, spreading to the Plata house and adjacent homes. About 125 firefighters extinguished the fire by 4:30 p.m. Two firefighters were treated for heat exposure and one suffered minor cuts and bruises.

One of those left homeless was Carmen Carillo, 78, who escaped with a raincoat, a sweater, her Social Security card and little else.

“I was in one of the rooms, praying for my son who died years ago, like I always do about this time,” she said.

“Then I heard the sounds of the fire. It sounded like crackling.”

She said she saw flames shooting through the windows of the house next door, so she grabbed some belongings she had hung near the front door and hurried out of her home, which was destroyed.

“I don’t know where I’m going,” she said. “I guess I’ll have to ask.”

Red Cross workers arrived at the scene later to offer housing to those who had none. Red Cross officials said they were establishing a shelter at a city recreation center near Echo Lake.

Hector Boisselier, 69, returned from work just after 5 p.m. to find his home of 50 years in ruins. His wife, Concepcion, 60, and their grandchildren, ages 7 and 2, had escaped unhurt. Although they fled without their three dogs, firefighters who went in afterward found no signs the pets had been killed. “Everybody’s fine, that’s the principal thing,” said a relative as he consoled Boisselier.

Times staff writers Hector Becerra, Jose Cardenas, Li Fellers, Kathleen Flynn and Eric Malnic contributed to this report.