4 injured as fire sweeps residence

For Russell Sittig, there was nothing more important than looking out for his family. Eleven children and grandchildren squeezed into the 68-year-old Sittig’s two-bedroom home in Leimert Park.

With his wife Evelyn, 65, he adopted 9- and 10-year- granddaughters when their parents could not look after them. Sittig was equally devoted to his wife, who like him, was deaf. Everybody in their home used sign language, including the children.

On Tuesday, Sittig struggled again for his family, this time as he tried to get them out of the burning house, before attempting to drag his wheelchair-bound wife, who was paralyzed by a stroke last year.

“He told everybody to get out,” his tearful daughter Reitha Thomas, 43, said. “He just wanted to save his wife. He wasn’t going to get out without her.”

By the time Los Angeles firefighters broke into the cramped home in the 2000 block of West 41st Street, Sittig was badly burned and unconscious. His wife lay nearby, slumped on a wheelchair in the smoky darkness. Crawling on all fours, firefighters found 10-year-old Amanda Sittig, one of the two granddaughters the couple adopted, without a pulse on the floor.

Her sister, Shannon, 9, had jumped out through a window, and was found in front of the house with burns to her hands and arms. She was hospitalized at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in critical but stable condition.

Amanda was transferred to Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach also in critical but stable condition.

Evelyn Sittig was expected to recover at Brotman Memorial Hospital in Culver City. But family members said Russell Sittig was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center with severe burns over half his body and was listed in critical condition.

“He’s the backbone of the whole family,” said Cheryle Taylor, 43, as she stood in front of her uncle’s gutted home. “He was all about taking care of his family.”

Fire officials said most of the 13 people in the house got out without injuries. One of the couple’s grandsons, Terry Thomas -- son of Reitha Thomas -- had been able to carry out his 16-year-old cousin Anthony Thomas, who is wheelchair-bound with cerebral palsy.

“Terry carried him because he can’t walk,” Reitha Thomas said. “He tried to go back in there, but the flames were so high. He felt helpless because he couldn’t help his grandparents.”

Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, said the fire was so intense that it burned trees and other vegetation in the yard.

“This home was a recipe for disaster,” he said.

Arson investigators determined that a portable space heater placed too close to a sofa had started the blaze. A natural Christmas tree in the living room also fueled the fire.

Once the blaze started, there were no smoke detectors to warn sleeping family members. And although the Sittigs slept in the rear of the house, near where the fire started, they would have needed a special smoke alarm because they were hearing impaired.

Humphrey said the smoke alarms were removed when the home underwent renovation.

Fortunately, Humphrey said, as part of the renovation, security bars on the windows were also removed. That allowed at least some family members to escape, he said.

Some neighbors had earlier tried to come to the family’s rescue, but they were kept back by the flames.

“One of my friends broke a window and tried to get the girls out, but it was too hot,” said neighbor Robin Bailey, 39. Bailey and her 13-year-old son, Edward, took some of the Sittig family members to their house.

Edward said Russell Sittig had gotten nearly everyone out of the house, but returned to get his wife.

“She’s bedridden,” the boy said. “He tried to drag her out, but it was too much. He couldn’t take it anymore.”

Firefighters trying to rescue family members ran into problems. After cutting through a steel gate, they discovered that the front and rear doors were shut with double-key deadbolt locks, Humphrey said.

Using circular saws, firefighters cut their way through the front door.

“There was inky dark smoke from the floor to the ceiling,” Humphrey said.

Firefighters found the older couple and struggled to get them out of the burning house. Crawling on their bellies, they also found 10-year-old Amanda, Humphrey said.

She had no pulse and wasn’t breathing, he said. “She was clinically dead. The paramedics did a fabulous job restoring her breathing and heart rate.”

Neighbors praised the firefighters’ response.

“They were doing everything they could,” Bailey said. “They brought them out one by one and got them into the ambulances as fast as they could.”

Hours later, Reitha Thomas and other family members went through the burnt-out shell of the house. They found few keepsakes. The fire caused more than $250,000 in damage, all but destroying the home.

Firefighters salvaged some wrapped Christmas presents. Family members said Amanda and Shannon had spent Christmas with their mother and had not yet opened the gifts.

Reitha Thomas said her parents had gone through the legal process of officially adopting their granddaughters. The couple considered the girls no less than their own children, Thomas said. Thomas said she was not surprised that her father was so determined to keep his family together and safe.

“That’s what hurts the most. He’s helping everybody and he wants to be happy like everybody else,” Thomas said. “But he’s suffering right now. He might not make it. That’s why I’m asking everyone to pray for him right now.”

*

hector.becerra@latimes.com