On Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 8:47 p.m., six companies of Los Angeles firefighters, three LAFD rescue ambulances, three arson units, one EMS battalion captain, one battalion chief officer command team, and one division chief officer command team all under the direction of Battalion Chief Joseph Castro responded to a structure fire with a civilian fatality at 3854 South Walton Ave. in the Exposition Park area.
Dispatchers received a 911 call frantically requesting help. The called stated that the house was on fire and there was someone trapped inside. Firefighters arrived in less than four minutes to find a 1,664-square foot, single family home with heavy smoke showing. Bystanders on the scene immediately conveyed the information regarding the trapped person to firefighters. Firefighters mounted an aggressive interior fire attack as fellow firefighters conducted simultaneous search and rescue operations to locate any individuals which may still be trapped inside the structure.
During the initial search of the structure, firefighters did locate a female, approximately sixty years old, who had perished inside the structure. The fire was knocked down in eleven minutes and confined primarily to one room of the structure. Incident commanders did request the CRT (Crisis Response Team) to respond to the location, to assist the family in dealing with this tragedy.
Fortunately, there were no other injuries reported. Though physical evidence of a smoke alarm was not immediately released, firefighters report no hearing alarms activating upon initial entry. There were no security bars or other obvious impairments to egress. The circumstances surrounding the fire and the fatality are under investigation. The dollar loss to the structure is still being tabulated.