Smoke Alarms Weren't Working at Apartment Where 2 Died in Encino Fire

Originally posted at 9:24 a.m. Aug. 29, 2014. Edited with new details.

Two people -- thought to be a woman in her 90s and her son in his 70s -- died of possible asphyxiation in a fire at the Encino Spa Condominiums building, where arriving firefighters found smoke alarms that were not operational, authorities said today.

Five other people, including a firefighter, were hospitalized with injuries suffered in Thursday night’s blaze in the three-story structure in the 5300 block of Lindley Avenue, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said.

The fire was reported about 9 p.m. Thursday and knocked down by 100 firefighters in about 65 minutes, Scott said. The names of the dead were not immediately released.

A firefighter was hospitalized with a hand injury, and four civilians were also transported to hospitals, Scott said. One person declined hospitalization and was treated at the scene.

Investigators were seeking the cause of the fire in the building, which has about 50 units, said LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey. A damage estimate was not immediately available.

“We are still waiting for positive confirmation that this is a mother and son; the mother in her 90s, the son somewhere in his 70s ...,” LAFD Capt. Jaime Moore said.

KABC Radio reports that the mom was 90 and the son 75.

Moore said there were “hard-wired” smoke alarms in the building and in the rooms where the fire occurred.

“However, our firefighters -- when they arrived on scene -- had no indication that these alarms were working,” Moore said. “They did not have any sounds coming from these alarms. The smoke alarms in the hallways were not sounding an alarm either.”

Firefighters this morning were going door-to-door in the building to hand out smoke alarms and to help the people who were evacuated temporarily during the firefighting effort, Humphrey said.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch file photo.

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