Some Residents Return To Brentwood High-Rise Day After Fire, Lawsuit Filed Against Owner
BRENTWOOD (CBSLA) — Some residents were able to return to their homes Thursday night, one day a fire broke out in a Brentwood high-rise, injuring 13 people.
On Thursday, most residents of the 270-unit Building A tower were allowed to return briefly to their Barrington Plaza units to collect medicines, medical devices and other necessary items.
"There's no lights, so you cannot see anything, but the apartment was really good," one resident said after returning.
Those who lived on the sixth, seventh or eighth floors were not allowed to enter the building since those floors sustained heavy damage in the blaze.
And, as of 8 p.m., residents who lived on the 10th floor and above were able to return home.
"I mean, we can still smell the heavy smoke, and that's disgusting," Maithilee Gani, a resident, said. "But for now we are still able to get back into the apartment, and that's a relief."
The seventh and eighth floors of the building remained closed to tenants with residents living on the first through sixth and ninth floors allowed to return only for brief periods with escorts.
On Wednesday morning, residents from the building scrambled down the stairs to safety, while others were told to go to the roof to be airlifted from the building.
But the most dramatic rescue was that of a man who escaped from the engulfed apartment and clung to the side of the building, balancing on a ledge that was no more than 2-inches thick.
"Guy had superhuman powers," Garrett Bocarra, the firefighter who saved the man, said. "He was on that ledge, about a quarter of an inch to half an inch. I was saying, 'We got you. We're going to be there in a second. Just stay right there.' He took a risk in order to kind of lean down and take that 3-foot gap. I didn't hear any crowd cheering, all I could hear was the crackling of the fire."
The man remained in critical condition Thursday evening.
According to Los Angeles City Fire Department investigators, the fire broke out in a seventh-floor unit of the Wilshire Boulevard building shortly after 8:30 a.m. The investigation into what sparked the fire is ongoing.
This is the second time since 2013 that the high-rise building has caught fire. The residential building does not have a sprinkler system, nor is it required to, but Councilman Mike Bonin said he wants to change that.
"Money is definitely not the object here," Bonin said. "I mean, we're talking about human life."
The estimated cost of installing a sprinkler system is $1 million.
One tenant has filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging that the company that owns the building has been negligent after failing to install sprinklers and make other safety improvements.
