Apartment Explosion Starts Fire, Injures Four

GLENDALE —  An explosion ripped through a Glendale apartment building Friday, injuring three adults and a child, blowing out the windows of nearby homes and apparently igniting a blaze that sent thick black ropes of smoke twisting through the air.

The 12:15 p.m. blast at 719 Orange Grove Ave. sent residents screaming into the streets, some bleeding from cuts suffered from flying glass and debris. The blast was felt for several blocks around the residential neighborhood near busy Colorado Street.

Authorities said they believed the blast resulted from a gas explosion originating in the kitchen of apartment 103, but said they had no further information.

“It can be anything and everything at this point,” said Chahe Keuroghelian, spokesman for the Glendale Police Department. “It could be arson or suicide or a natural gas explosion.”

Eyewitnesses said one man who apparently lived in the apartment where the blast originated rushed into the street afterward, holding a bleeding young boy tightly to his chest.

“Call 911, call 911,” the man screamed, according to several eyewitnesses.

The man’s identity could not be determined late Friday, but a 31-year-old male was taken to Glendale Adventist Medical Center with first- and second-degree burns covering more than 30% of his body. He was transferred to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition Friday night, said hospital spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda.

A 6-year-old child was taken to Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles, where he was in fair condition after being treated for minor facial burns and a cut on his neck. He was expected to be kept overnight for observation, said Steve Rutledge, a hospital spokesman.

A 58-year-old man, identified as the father of the 31-year-old man, was treated for flash burns at Glendale Memorial Hospital. A fourth victim, a 72-year-old woman, was treated at the scene for abrasions. In addition, one woman fainted after the blast and a man was treated for heart pains, authorities said.

The fire that followed the blast took about 30 minutes to put out, fire officials said. Four apartments in the 18-unit building were destroyed and eight others were damaged.

At least some eyewitnesses said the man who lived in the apartment had left on the gas, then returned to light a cigarette, igniting the blast.

One woman who declined to give her name said she was sitting with her three young children in an apartment directly above where the explosion occurred.

“I heard an explosion and everything jumped in the air,” the woman said in Armenian, as a neighbor interpreted. Squatting on the steps outside the ruined apartment, her face drained, the woman spoke softly to her children, one of whom had been cut on the ear.

“It’s OK now. It’s only a little cut,” the woman said.

Claudia Avedikian, 28, was working at a mortgage company on Colorado Street when the explosion occurred.

“There was a strange noise and then a big boom, a big boom,” she said. “The whole ground was shaking. People were running from the building.”

Roxana Ayala, 31, a cleaning woman, was about to enter the apartment to clean it when the blast erupted in front of her.

“I saw the explosion. It was like a bomb. There was stuff flying all through the air,” Ayala said. “There was screaming and screaming. People were coming out of the building. They were screaming and crying.”

Red Cross officials opened an emergency shelter at Glendale High School’s gym for those left homeless by the blast.

Authorities said they expected their investigation to continue at least through the end of the week, and they weren’t sure when they would be able to reopen the apartment building.

Miller is a Times staff writer; Steinman is a correspondent. Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein also contributed to this story.