Code violations existed days before fatal blaze

Follow-up inspections of a Long Beach apartment complex where two people later died in a fire found nine unresolved fire code violations six days before the Dec. 8 blaze, officials said Friday.

The Paradise Garden apartment complex in the 6400 block of Atlantic Avenue was initially found to be in violation of 17 code items involving maintenance and operation of its alarm system, basement sprinklers and fire extinguishers during a Sept. 12 inspection.

Four follow-up inspections at the 320-unit complex found similar violations, fire officials said. The last inspection occurred Dec. 2 and found nine violations.

“I don’t know what happened between Dec. 2 and Dec. 8, but I know the last time the inspector was out there they were not taken care of,” said Deputy Fire Chief Hank Teran.

“We’re still in the middle of an investigation,” he added.

Dan Wayne, an owner and manager of the apartment complex, said that he had been working with fire officials for three months to correct the problems and that he believed the building was “up to fire standard” at the time of the blaze.

Wayne said his contractor told him three days before the fire that the majority of violations had been corrected. But he said Thursday that he later learned the contractor could only confirm that the alarm system was working properly.

Fire Department spokesman Chris Milburn said it appeared that the alarm system was functioning in the 158-unit north building, where the fire erupted about 4 p.m.

The blaze was caused by a kitchen fire in a first-floor apartment that spread to the second and third floors through the ventilation system.

Akhilesh and Nisha Srivastava, of India, who were visiting their son, were killed.

Twenty-six people, including eight firefighters, were injured.

tami.abdollah@latimes.com