LOS ANGELES _ A fire broke out Wednesday morning in a 25-story residential building on Los Angeles' Westside, triggering a large response from city firefighters and injuring eight people, including a 3-month-old baby.
The blaze, which erupted on the sixth floor at the Barrington Plaza apartments on Wilshire Boulevard, was reported shortly after 8:30 a.m. by fire crews, who were tending to a nearby blaze that sparked earlier.
At least 300 firefighters responded to help battle the blaze and evacuate residents inside the building. Three women, two men and a 3-month-old baby were taken to a hospital for treatment. Most were suffering from smoke inhalation and was one listed in critical condition. Two others were treated at the scene for possible smoke exposure, Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.
Fire officials initially reported that some people had jumped from the building to escape the flames. However, authorities later clarified that two people contemplated jumping but were rescued by fire officials. Residents crawled on their bellies through thick smoke to attempt to escape. One man was seen clinging to a ledge before a fire ladder was hoisted up to him.
"This could have been much worse," Fire Capt. Erik Scott said.
Firefighters took an unconventional approach to battling the flames, hosing the building from the outside in an effort to cool off the units before allowing firefighters to fight the flames from indoors. The bulk of the fire was located on the sixth story of the 240-unit high-rise, though three other levels were also impacted by smoke, officials said.
As some crews focused on the fire inside, others were tasked with evacuations. At least 15 people, some in bathrobes, were airlifted to safety from the building's rooftop. Officials said it was the first time the fire chopper had been used in rescue efforts.
"This was a herculean effort by the members of the Los Angeles Fire Department," Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said. "It takes a lot of coordination, and our resources did a good job."
After an intense hourlong battle made more challenging by strong winds gusting up to 35 mph, firefighters were able to knock down the flames shortly before 10 a.m.
Firefighters will likely remain on the scene for a day to assist potential victims. They first must go door to door to find residents still inside and will determine whether a full evacuation is needed.
LAPD Deputy Chief Justin Eisenberg said the Police Department and fire officials are investigating whether the fire was a crime or an accident. Arson investigators are observing burn patterns, combing through debris and interviewing witnesses at the scene. No one has been arrested in connection to the fire, he said.
"It's very early in this investigation right know. We don't know if we have an arson," he said.
Another fire that started earlier in the morning about three blocks away is also part of the investigation, since it was also a high-rise fire that broke out in the same time frame as the Barrington Plaza fire. However, authorities stressed that there's no nexus between them other than their physical location and the howling wind.
John Tavakoli was outside when the floor where his grandmother lives burst into flames. As firefighters rushed to evacuate her and her neighbors, his initial horror settled into smoldering rage _ another fire like this one had burned here a few years ago, but little had changed. Like others, he blamed the revolving door of short-term renters for unsafe conditions in the building.
"A lot of people Airbnb here. They just party," he said. "They party all night _ they're up until 2 a.m. on a Tuesday."
Meanwhile, he said, safety issues have gone unaddressed.
"Our rent goes up, utilities go up, but one elevator's always broken," he said.
Resident Gavyn Straus stood barefoot on the sidewalk, holding a towel around his American-flag bathing suit as he watched a sheriff's helicopter hoisting stranded neighbors off the roof. He had been in the pool swimming laps when he turned his head for a breath and noticed the smoke. Right away, he leaped out of the pool and dashed up to alert neighbors on his floor.
The smoke "was like a black wall" on the seventh floor, he said. Higher up, he started banging on doors, telling neighbors to get out.
Twins Kristina and Kimberly Pagano, recent UCLA grads, were asleep in their apartment a few floors below when the fire broke out. They woke up to the sound of firetrucks. Moments later, the building fire alarm went off, and they rushed outside.
Both immediately thought of the fire that erupted in the building in 2013, which was believed to have been sparked by a cigarette. The building still allows residents to smoke in their units on designated floors, which the sisters had toured before moving in. Like others, they said the building hosts a large number of short-term visitors.
"We always see people with luggage," Kristina said.
"It's like a hotel," Kimberly agreed.
Officials have said there's no indication the fire was caused by someone smoking inside or that it broke out in a unit rented as an Airbnb.
As the fire was raging, video showed heavy flames burning inside the building and thick black smoke pouring from balconies and windows.
Mackenzie Williams, 25, said she was driving to work at Pure Barre _ a fitness studio at Wilshire Boulevard and Granville Avenue _ about 9 a.m. when she "saw one fire truck pass by me, then I saw two, then I saw 10, then I saw about 20, so I definitely knew something was going on."
Williams said she "saw a bunch of smoke coming out of the building" and what appeared to be a helicopter airlifting people from the roof.
"I just hope everyone is OK over there," she said.
A fire that erupted on the 11th floor of the building in 2013 displaced up to 150 residents and injured two people. It also prompted concerns about a lack of sprinkler systems in some buildings in Los Angeles.
At the time, L.A. fire officials said the Barrington Plaza building was not equipped with a sprinkler system. Because it was built nearly 60 years ago, it does not fall under state regulations later adopted that forced buildings taller than 75 feet to include such fire-suppression systems unless granted an exemption.
Deputy Chief Armando Hogan said Wednesday the building was not equipped with sprinklers.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2014 that 71 of the city's roughly 200 residential high-rises don't have sprinkler systems installed. There was a push after the 2013 fire to get more of those buildings retrofitted with sprinklers.
In 2014, a group of tenants in the high-rise sued the building's corporate owner for negligence.
According to residents, several fire alarms failed to sound in Barrington Plaza as the fire in October 2013 spread inside an apartment on the 11th floor. A door to the roof was locked and the stairwells filled with choking smoke, tenants said.
"The conditions at the supposedly high-end apartment building were atrocious," attorney Mark Geragos said at the time.
Resident Ivo Gerscovich's 2-year-old daughter and father-in-law were found unconscious in a smoke-filled stairwell above the 20th floor during the 2013 fire.
"It's a deathtrap," Gerscovich said at the time. "It's totally insane and indefensible."
Liz Bowers, who lives in one of the Barrington Plaza apartment towers, was awakened by sirens and smoke Wednesday morning and immediately thought it couldn't be another fire, remembering the 2013 blaze that caused significant damage in the same building. But when she looked out her window, there it was.
"I was like holy ... it's tower A again," she said.
She had a clear view of the flames and clouds of black smoke. She could hear screams, and windows blowing out from the heat of the flames. Bowers ran downstairs to the public pool area that the two buildings share and continued watching as firefighters attempted to quell the flames and rescue residents. After witnessing the dramatic events, she decided she'd had enough. She needed to move out.
Bowers thought about all the times she could smell cigarette and marijuana smoke deep into her apartment, a result of little interference from the building managers, she said. She spent three years as a resident knocking on the leasing offices door, writing letters and making phone calls to the building managers. Eventually, she gave up.
"They should have put sprinklers in after the (2013) fire," she said. "They let everybody smoke. There's a lot of Airbnb (rentals). You get all these people coming into party and smoke pot the landlords don't care."
