Ross Chamberlain was inside his Chatsworth house early Tuesday evening when he heard “banging and thumping” before the condo complex across the street erupted in flames.
“It was too early for fireworks, obviously, so I looked outside and saw just a wall of black smoke coming across the back driveway,” Chamberlain, 52, said Wednesday. “The people in the second unit here where the fire started, they were on my side of the street, and they were trying to get a hold of 911 and completely hysterical.”
The raging fire was reported just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday in the 22100 block of James Alan Circle. Eighty-one minutes later, the fire was knocked down, four families were left displaced and two firefighters had been injured.
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Initial reports said three firefighters sustained nonlife-threatening injuries, but those reports were incorrect, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart, who confirmed Wednesday that two firefighters were hurt.
Authorities said a propane tank or barbecue equipment on the patio of one of the condo units caused the fire, which destroyed four units.
On Wednesday afternoon, people could be seen gathering items outside the heavily damaged condo complex and placing them in a U-Haul truck. Concerned neighbors brought the victims pizza and asked how they were feeling. While most of the affected residents declined to be interviewed, one said everyone was “safe.”
Lucy Islikaplan, 30, who lives in the complex, said she wasn’t home when the fire started.
Later in the evening, she and her husband returned with their 8-week-old baby, Noah, and a window next door exploded from the intense heat.
“It was insane,” Islikaplan said of the fire.
Her husband, Michael, said they had left their pit bull, Brie, inside their unit while the family went out. When they returned home, Brie “was freaking out.”
They said their homeowners association agreement allows barbecues, and they have one on their patio as well.
An official with the homeowners’ association declined to be interviewed Wednesday.
Britney Snell, who lives about two minutes away, said she woke up to the sound of the helicopters Tuesday night.
“We saw the smoke and, of course, social media — Snapchat — was on it before anybody else,” said Snell, 24. “It’s really sad. I hope the families are all OK. I couldn’t see any flames. I could just see a lot of smoke. It looked like a huge chimney.”
While the American Red Cross is helping the four displaced families from the involved units, it was unclear how many people lived in each of the four units, authorities said.
Each unit in the building averages 1,300 square feet, fire officials explained, and share a common attic within the 47-year-old wood frame and stucco building.
It took 122 firefighters and a helicopter to extinguish the stubborn, wind-aided blaze, LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey said Tuesday.
The “relentless firefight” was battled in 91 degree weather, Humphrey added.
The monetary loss is still being calculated, fire officials said.
City News Service contributed to this report.
