Two people critically injured

This photo from video provided by abc7 Los Angeles shows a Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter rescuing a resident from the rooftop of a 25-story high-rise apartment building, where a fire broke out on a sixth-floor balcony and sent choking smoke billowing through the upper levels Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020. One person was critically injured. Two people were taken to hospitals and six others had smoke inhalation. A fire also broke out at the same building in 2013. (ABC7 Los Angeles via AP)

By STEFANIE DAZIO and BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles firefighters rescued 15 terrified residents from the rooftop of a 25-story high-rise apartment building where a windswept fire broke out on the sixth floor and sent choking smoke billowing through the upper levels Wednesday morning. Two people were critically injured, authorities said.

There were early reports that some people had jumped from the building after, but officials later said that wasn’t true. A helicopter crew member on the roof helped attach each person to line and they were hoisted into the hovering chopper one by one. At one point firefighters lifted a small white dog into the helicopter.

“We have rarely done rooftop evacuations for medical purposes. Rarely,” Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said, adding that the strategy was “very effective.”

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Deputy Fire Chief Armando Hogan said the fire was put out shortly before 10 a.m., about 90 minutes after firefighters responded. Six people were taken to hospitals, mostly for smoke inhalation, officials said.

Roomates Puja Oza and Dalia Kingsbury got calls and texts from friends about the fire before they heard smoke alarms at around 8:45 a.m. Still wearing pajamas, they ran with their golden retriever, Seymour, from their 16th floor apartment to the stairwell, which was crowded with neighbors trying to go down and firefighters running up.

At the 8th floor the stairs were slick with water and smoke billowed from a closed door, choking people as they scrambled to get out, Kingsbury said.

“We didn’t know if the fire was going to come out of the door,” she said. “I was shaking the whole time.”

Hogan said the cause of the fire is under investigation, with firefighters looking into the possibility it was deliberately set. “Arson is on the scene doing an investigation,” he said.

Terrazas added, “It is suspicious right now.”

This photo provided by Megan Feldman shows a helicopter flies over a residential building that is on fire in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020. Firefighters swarmed the building on the city’s west side and people could be seen on the roof as flames and smoke rise from the sixth floor. A helicopter was hoisting people off the roof. (Megan Feldman via AP)

Hogan said one man was hanging onto the edge of the building contemplating jumping when firefighters managed to reach him and talk him out of it, then pull him to safety.

Once Oza and Kingsbury reached safety, the roommates glanced up and saw the man on the edge just before he was rescued.

“He was literally like Spider-Man,” Oza said.

With the flames doused firefighters were going through the building’s 25 floors to check on occupants. “Right now we’re doing a floor-to-floor search to make sure people are OK,” Hogan said.

Authorities said alert firefighters wrapping up an earlier fire at an office building several blocks away spotted the fire on a balcony of the residential tower, allowing a quick response by more than 300 firefighters.

Resident Gavyn Straus, clad only in swim shorts and a towel, said he was in the swimming pool when he looked up and saw smoke, ran into the building to alert a woman working at the front desk but found she was already calling 911.

Straus said he and a maintenance worker took an elevator to the eighth floor, where they believed the fire was. They then went down to the seventh floor where they opened a door and thick, black smoke came out. Straus said someone came running out covered in soot.

A fire also occurred at the Barrington Plaza high-rise in 2013, injuring several people and displacing more than 100, the Los Angeles Time reported.

Fire officials said then that the building was not equipped with a sprinkler system, the newspaper reported. It was built in 1961 and wasn’t required to have one under state regulations saying buildings taller than 75 feet include such fire-suppression systems unless granted an exemption.

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This story has been corrected to show building was built in 1961.

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Associated Press writers John Antczak, John Rogers and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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