Flames Conquer Castle on Santa Monica Beach : Blaze Guts Upper Stories of Landmark Building Damaged in ’94 Quake

Fire exploded through a beachside Santa Monica apartment building just after dawn Thursday, delivering a possible death blow to a landmark that narrowly survived the Northridge earthquake and forcing a group of homeless people back to the street.

The morning-long blaze gutted most of the upper floors of the vacant, nine-story Sea Castle apartment building, a onetime jewel of the city’s waterfront that has recently fallen into disrepair.

It will take several days for officials to determine the cause of the fire and for engineers to decide whether the 70-year-old building is sound enough to leave standing on the Promenade south of the Santa Monica Pier.

“I was down there, and it looks pretty bad,” said City Councilwoman Judy Abdo. “I can’t imagine that the building as we know it will be able to stand any longer.”

Since the earthquake in 1994, the owner of the turquoise, Art Deco Sea Castle has been studying whether he can afford to rehabilitate the building. During that time, city officials have repeatedly accused landlord Robert Braun of failing to secure the building, allowing it to be overrun by birds, rodents and transients.

“This is precisely the kind of thing we were trying to avoid,” said Suzanne Frick, the city’s director of planning and community development. Neighbors had recently complained that the Sea Castle was a fire hazard and a den for drug users.

Braun, who watched the fire from an adjacent beach parking lot, declined to speak to reporters.

A harbor guard on routine patrol noticed flames on the building’s fourth floor before 6 a.m. The Santa Monica Fire Department arrived shortly thereafter but firefighters were forced to evacuate the building when flames began burning underneath their position on the fourth floor.

A sprinkler system that Braun had been forced to install apparently did not switch on.

On the upper floors, at least eight street people had awakened to what one described as the sound of “dry leaves being crunched under someone’s shoes.” Christopher “Sprocket” Krueger, 18, and Guy Johnson, 30, told police they were the first to see the fire.

“Guy looks up and says, ‘Hey, is that fire supposed to be over there?’ ” said Krueger, a gangly teenager who was left holding just his backpack, bedroll and skateboard after evacuating the building. “And I said, ‘I don’t think so, man. We better get on outta here.’ ”

Krueger and Johnson told police they raced to other apartments where they knew friends were staying. “We were yelling and screaming, but some of them weren’t listening so we had to kick down their doors and get them out,” Krueger said. “We didn’t have time to think.”

One man trapped in the building’s south tower tossed a dog to safety on a lower tier and then jumped himself.

Despite the ferocity of the blaze, no one was injured, authorities said.

Throughout the morning, firefighters on the beach and atop fully extended aerial ladders directed torrents of water into the building. The water eventually flooded the bicycle path along the beach.

Fire officials said the cause of the fire remained unclear, although they previously had worried that squatters could start a blaze. Johnson, a stocky onetime circus road man whose face was framed in four tight pigtails, speculated that there might have been a short circuit in the electrical wiring improvised by some transients.

The 178-unit building opened in 1926 as the Breakers Beach Club and was re-christened the Grand Hotel at a star-studded event eight years later. During World War II, the building was turned into military housing but reverted to hotel use before it was reborn in the 1960s as an apartment house.

The city ordered its evacuation after the quake, and the building underwent eight months of reinforcement work before tenants could return briefly to collect some of their possessions.

It was later revealed that 13 Santa Monica firefighters were under investigation for stealing items from the abandoned building. The allegations still have not been resolved.

But the Sea Castle’s former tenants prefer to remember it for its funky charms and for an eclectic group of residents.

“It was a place you could just kick back . . . and not worry about your troubles,” said Paul Fabian, 65, who drove to Santa Monica from his Gardena home when he heard about the fire to get what might be a last look at the place he lived in a dozen years ago.

“This place was like a novel,” said a screenwriter who had lived at the Sea Castle for 10 years. “There were writers, artists, people on food stamps. I saw [former Gov.] Jerry Brown and [former U.S. Sen.] Alan Cranston in the lobby once. It was such a mix. I’m not sure if the novel is over, even now.”

Even short-timers such as the squatters came to appreciate the place.

“My God, I felt like a king up there,” Johnson said. “We had an ocean view and everything you could want. A mattress, a shower, a microwave and radio.

“It’s sad,” he said. “It was a beautiful place.”

’ This place was like a novel. There were writers, artists, people on food stamps. . . . It was such a mix. I’m not sure if the novel is over, even now.’

Screenwriter who lived at Sea Castle for 10 years