Woman Saves Children From Fire

Noticing smoke and hearing cries for help, a 26-year-old woman broke into a flaming Canoga Park apartment Friday and saved two small children from a quick-moving fire, authorities said.

Fire officials believe the blaze was started about 1 p.m. by the children, a 5-year-girl and a 6-year-old boy, while they were playing with matches. It was extinguished by 75 firefighters about an hour later, authorities said.

Only two minor injuries were reported. Things might have turned out much worse, neighbors said, if not for the swift action of Chatsworth resident Nicole Rose.

Rose, 26, was moving items from some friends’ apartment in the 8600 block of International Avenue when she saw smoke, then fire, on the balcony of another apartment in the complex.

“After hearing multiple stories, it sounds like [Rose] performed some heroic acts,” said city Fire Capt. Rick Godinez. “It’s amazing nobody was burned.”

As Rose made trips into and out of her friends’ apartment, she said, she noticed smoke and flames on the neighbors’ balcony. Initially she thought it was a barbecue, she said, but the fire grew, quickly consuming most of the porch.

“All of a sudden, it started traveling up on the roof,” she said. “It was moving so fast--it was amazing.”

Rose called 911 on her friends’ cordless phone. A dispatcher told her not to open the door, Rose said, saying the Fire Department was on the way. But Rose said she could hear kids’ voices crying for help.

She tried the front door, which was unlocked, but blocked from the inside. She said she rammed it open with her body, and was immediately engulfed in smoke.

Rose said she saw two children and their mother, 36-year-old Chari Brown, in the apartment.

Rose carried the children to safety. Brown escaped the apartment on her own, and was uninjured.

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Rose suffered from smoke inhalation and was treated at the scene. One firefighter also suffered a minor injury while battling the blaze and was also treated there, Godinez said.

Brown said she kept paint thinner and other flammable materials on the balcony. Some neighbors said they heard a sound like a small explosion.

The charred second-story apartment was uninhabitable, as was the apartment below, which sustained major water damage. Fire officials said the Red Cross would work to find temporary housing for Brown and her children, as well as for the three adults and four children who lived in the lower unit.

Damage estimates for the two units, and an adjacent unit that had minor damage, was $131,000, city fire spokesman Bob Collis said.

Collis said the Fire Department was considering honoring Rose for her actions.

“I wasn’t thinking,” said Rose, an assistant special education teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and a junior varsity girls basketball coach at Chaminade College Preparatory in West Hills.

“I know I love kids.. . . I just knew there was no one there to help, and I had to do it.”

Rose’s friend Carrie Savlov, 26, called her “a real hero.” “She deserves a medal,” Savlov said.