Fire displaces 12
Cats perish in blaze, person taken to hospital
One person was taken to the hospital suffering smoke inhalation, two others were treated at the scene, and about a dozen people were displaced from their apartments Thursday as fire swept through a Canyon Country apartment building.
Two cats died in the fire, and one firefighter was treated for a burn to his hand, a Fire Department official said.
A ground-floor apartment in the building in the 17700 of Danielson Street was gutted by the fire, and units adjacent to it were damaged by the blaze that erupted shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday.
Two women lying on the ground near the burning apartment were being treated by paramedics as Los Angeles County firefighters battled the flames. Five others, some wearing
protective masks and all covered in soot, were nearby, unable to re-enter the building.
Fire officials notified the Red Cross on behalf of more than a dozen people displaced by the fire and left homeless, including at least nine adults and three children, said Battalion Chief Darus Ane.
“The first unit on the scene reported heavy smoke showing,” he said. “We went in initially on fire (tactical) search mode.” One firefighter burned his hand in the process and was treated at a hospital, Ane said.
Besides the apartment, two garages were damaged, he said.
Two cats perished in the fire, and a third survived after treatment at the scene.
A short-haired black cat with white paws suffered smoke inhalation and was given oxygen and treated by paramedics, who notified the county Department of Animal Care and Control.
“We took one cat and then took it to a vet,” said Castaic Animal Shelter Manager Karen Stepp.
First-responders reported seeing flames and heavy smoke coming from the apartment and a garage at the back of the apartment when they arrived at the scene. Several fire trucks and at least 40 firefighters battled the blaze.
By 10:09 a.m., firefighters from the scene notified their dispatcher that the fire had been knocked down.
The cause of the fire was unknown and was under investigation.
In an interview with The Signal later Thursday, Candice Dempsey, a next-door resident of the unit that burned, said she and a man she didn’t know tried to help evacuate the building.
“I was on the balcony talking to my sister,” she said. “I told her there was another fire alarm going off. I told her I had to go.
“By the time I turned around, everything was going up in flames.”
Dempsey was taken by ambulance to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital for treatment. She said she and the man pulled a tenant through a window of her unit. The woman had dementia, she said.
“She was waving to us, and then all of a sudden there were flames,” Dempsey said, adding the woman fainted in the smoke.
“There was also a woman who kept going back in to get her cats,” she said.