13 injured in fire at apartment complex

Thirteen people were injured during an early-morning fire Saturday at an apartment complex near downtown Los Angeles, including a woman who broke her leg leaping from an upper floor and a 2-year-old girl who suffered third-degree burns but is expected to survive, fire officials said.

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda said the blaze broke out on the second floor and residents used some creative efforts to escape. One person tied together a karate belt, a blanket and a power cord and tied the assemblage to a room fixture, Ruda said. He didn’t know whether anyone used the makeshift rope.

In that apartment, “there were four plates of breakfast on the table: beans, tortillas and eggs,” Ruda said. “So they were eating breakfast one moment and trying to use whatever they could to escape the next.”

The fire broke out about 8:45 a.m. at the three-story, 42-unit apartment building on South Loma Drive near Belmont High School, just west of downtown. More than 100 firefighters battled the flames. The fire was put out in less than half an hour.

Ruda said the injured 2-year-old lived in an apartment directly opposite from where the fire started.

In fires like this, Ruda said, the best strategy usually is to stay in the apartment and wait for help near the window. Hanging a sheet outside a window lets firefighters know that someone needs to be rescued. Use wet towels seal the crack under the door, he said. People can also purchase chain ladders to help them escape a fire, Ruda said.

“But under panic conditions, it’s hard to be patient,” he said. “It must seem like hours.”

Ruda said arson investigators are looking for the cause of the blaze.

This style of building, with central hallways, has seen several fatal fires in the past. One of the worst occurred in 1983 just around the corner, at Sunset Boulevard and Figueroa Street. Twenty-five people were killed, Ruda said.

The fire had caused residents to panic and run into the hallways. “It was one of the most horrific things I ever saw, people stuck in the doorway, those stacked at the top burned so badly,” he said. “The people stacked in the bottom were alive.”

Ruda said the 1983 fire led to an ordinance that requires that such buildings have heat-detecting devices that close hallway doors so smoke can be contained. Those devices were effective in Saturday’s fire, Ruda said.

hector.becerra@latimes.com