2 die, 18 hurt in apartment house blaze

Two people were killed Friday and 18 others, including six firefighters, were injured when a blaze swept through a 320-unit apartment complex in Long Beach, forcing rescuers to pluck residents off balconies.

At first, fire officials said they considered the blaze suspicious in origin, in part because it quickly moved to all three floors of the building. But late Friday, fire department spokesman Chris Milburn said it appeared that the fire was “accidental in nature” and had spread quickly because it “got into the ventilation system.”

By the time firefighters arrived at the sprawling Paradise Garden apartments in the 6700 block of Atlantic Avenue, at least three units in the complex’s north building were ablaze, said Milburn. He said that people affiliated with the building had begun rescuing people using their own ladders.

Firefighters, Milburn said, were stymied in part because the blaze got “such a head start on us.”

The department quickly put out a call for help and firefighters from cities including Los Angeles, Compton, Downey and Santa Fe Springs arrived to lend assistance. In all, 200 firefighters battled the blaze, Milburn said.

Some firefighters carried hand lines inside the building while others punched holes in the roof, allowing ventilation, but also causing flames and smoke to spew out.

Fire officials had no information about the two unidentified victims except that they were occupants of the building.

Long Beach Fire Chief Dave Ellis said seven people were taken to the hospital. Injuries included smoke inhalation, burns, cuts and dehydration, officials said. A spokesman for Long Beach Memorial Medical Center said that the seven included six residents of the building -- three adults and three children -- and one firefighter, and that all were in stable condition, being treated for smoke inhalation.

Late Friday, the Fire Department declared the building uninhabitable.

Keith Bigham, who lived in Apartment 306, was one of about two dozen people rescued by firefighters from the building’s balconies.

Bigham, 50, said he was awakened from a nap about 4 p.m. by voices outside his apartment. He said he opened the door to his unit and found the hallway enveloped in smoke. He took two steps into the hallway and then retreated inside his apartment. Bigham said he tried crawling out under the smoke, but that, too, was impossible. So he went to his balcony -- grabbing his wallet and checkbook, but little else -- to wait for a rescue. Bigham said he waited “10 to 15 minutes” before fire personnel got a ladder up to him.

Dressed in gray sweats, untied work boots, and a shirt from his night shift job arranging merchandise displays for Retail Store Services, Bigham said he and his wife, Marita, had moved to the unit from Inglewood two months ago.

The couple stopped at the evacuation site, across the street from the apartment complex at Jordan High School, where cots had been set up in the gymnasium, but they said they planned to spend the night at a nearby hotel.

They had both given up smoking when they moved to the unit, Bigham said -- but on Friday night, both were chain-smoking Marlboros.

Casey Nelson, 24, lives on the first floor of the north building. He works nights and said he had come home to take a nap before a shift as a poker dealer at the Hustler Casino, but he was soon interrupted by the fire alarm. “I didn’t think anything of it,” Nelson said. “It happens once in a while. Then I started smelling and seeing smoke in my apartment.”

Nelson described the scene outside his front door as “pretty much chaos.” People were running around in the hallway, he said, some of them crying. He tried to help them locate people, to no avail, and then walked out of the building through his patio.

At first, he said, he didn’t think much about what was happening. “But then I went outside and saw how people were emotional and crying. Then it really hit me.”

Paradise Garden -- which bills itself as a luxury apartment community -- is a rambling facility that includes tennis courts, a large pool, a screening room and two levels of underground parking. Units -- studios as well as one and two bedrooms -- rent for $755 to $1,155 a month, according to the building’s website.

Milburn said that although officials considered the fire “under control” late Friday, they were still tearing up the building’s walls and ceilings to make sure that there were no more hot spots.

tami.abdollah@latimes.com

cara.dimassa@latimes.com