A fire broke out at a multifamily residence on The Strand in El Porto around 10 a.m. this morning. Although part of the house was significantly damaged, no one appeared to be injured.
No one from the Manhattan Beach Fire Department was available for comment as of Monday afternoon, although a spokesperson from the Manhattan Beach Police Department confirmed that police provided traffic direction this morning.
The fire appeared to have started in the garage at 4416-4418 The Strand, the second property south from 45th Street, according to a neighbor, Bob Sievers of Shorewood Realtors, who used to live in the building.
Praying my old neighbors are out safe
Posted by Bob Sievers on Monday, November 30, 2015
The four-person family living in the studio below the garage escaped unharmed and was able to retrieve many of their belongings, Sievers said.
“I ran down there panicked,” Sievers said. “I thought my friends might be in there and I would pull them out of there. The whole thing was engulfed in flames.”
Sievers had been at home when a friend called to tell him, “Your place is on fire.” At first, Sievers thought his friend, a surfer, meant the surfing conditions.
“He said, ‘No, I mean it’s really on fire,’” said Sievers.
The Pettys, whom Sievers identified on Facebook as the family in the studio, would probably be staying with him for the evening, he said. The family couldn’t be reached Monday afternoon.
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“The power went off, which isn’t necessarily new,” said Lambert. “We stuck our heads out we saw the garage was on fire. There’s space between our places and the garage, so we weren’t too worried about our stuff.”
The cause of the fire wasn’t known.
According to the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office, the four-unit building was built in 1940. The land is valued around $4 million. A spokesperson from the assessor’s office identified the owner as Metropolitan Investments LLC and Robert Abernethy. A call to a number for Abernethy wasn’t immediately returned.
Sievers said that the garage was destroyed, but that thanks to the fire department’s quick work, the fire didn’t spread.
“I thought the whole building was going to go up, but it was contained to that structure,” said Sievers, who moved to a nearby house two years ago.
One of the upstairs units was for rent, according to Sievers.
Five cars which were in the garage were destroyed, according to Lambert, including his 1983 VW Vanagon Westfalia, which had sentimental value. His father brought the car from Australia when the family moved, and Lambert was in the process of fixing it up.
“He died two years ago and I was restoring it in his memory,” said Lambert. “When I was born, I came home from the hospital in it. I thought about running in to save it, but it was funeral fire. Nothing was coming out alive.” ER
