Cory Mularz was making eggs for his two sons around 11 a.m. in Redondo Pacific apartments at 710 N. Prospect Ave when his stove went up in flames.
“I almost fell on the floor,” said Mularz. “It was like it exploded and it lit out of control right away.”
Luckily, Redondo Beach Police Department Officer Don Martinez was in the area.
“I was hailed down by a motorist,” said Martinez. “It looked like a grease fire on the [electric] stove. We extinguished that but it must have gotten up the wall and into the roof. We got everybody out, including residents and a dog, but unfortunately there are three missing cats from apartment one.”
“I’m pretty worried about my cats,” Mularz said. Firefighters said they hope that they escaped out the back door.
Before Martinez responded, Mularz found a bucket and tried to fight the blaze himself. Once Martinez and two other RBPD officers arrived on scene, they knocked on neighboring doors and evacuated the entire building.
According to Martinez, Mularz never called the fire department.
“He complained about that stove forever,” said Cory’s mother Cindy Mularz. “I’m glad they got out okay and that cop happened to be flying by. They thought they had it out, but I guess it started up again.”
Shortly after, the Redondo Beach, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and County Fire Departments all showed up to help fight the blaze.
“It happened so fast they just had to get out,” said Mularz. “His son just had his underwear on, I had to bring him clothes!”
[scrollGallery id = 352]“The fire got into the ceiling all between the first and second floor and traveled up the second and into the attic,” said Redondo Beach Fire Department Division Chief Steve Hyink. “We put up a water curtain to save the building and were five minutes from defensive. It was a close call, and the guys did a great job. They jumped in with aggressive fire tactics.”
Neighbors were not sure what was happening, and many stepped out of their houses after hearing smoke alarms and smelling smoke.
“I thought it was an electrical fire, that’s what it smelled like,” said Greg Niles, a neighbor. “I came outside and was like “Oh shit, that apartment’s on fire!”’
George Barks lives across the street and came out because he saw smoke.
“There was a guy with a five gallon bucket trying to put it out himself,” said Barks. “The police came and took the extinguisher out of their car and went in. Shortly after that the fire department showed up.”
Cynthia Vickers in apartment three was upstairs sleeping when the officers banged on her door.
“I’ve been here 12 years,” said Vickers. “I’m just wondering where I’m going to go. My whole place is wet now.”
Not only are the resident’s houses wet, firefighters had to slice through the ceiling from both above and below to extinguish the fire that was raging through the ceiling and attic. They used hooks to punch through and pull the ceiling down, tearing out ceiling tiles and dry wall.
“It’s a mess in there,” Redondo Beach firefighter Gary Treskes said.
Many residents were out of town, and one was on vacation in Australia. A friend and neighbor, Ronnie Riggs, filmed the fire with his cell phone and called his friend who lived in apartment two while she was on vacation to tell her about the fire.
“She was really, really upset,” said Riggs.
Raul Bilhere, who lives in apartment two with his vacationing daughter, got a frantic call from his wife.
“She said, “Somebody called saying the apartment’s on fire!” I told her to calm down, and I stopped playing soccer in Malibu and came right away,” said Bilhere. “It seems not a huge amount of damage, but I don’t know. There’s more water than fire. Now we have two beautiful holes in our roof. I’m worried about everything- the computer, TV, clothing…. It’s our house, we have everything in there.”
According to Hyink they were able to save about two thirds of the building.
Firefighters climbed the ladder to the roof of apartment two and three and used a chainsaw to cut through the ceiling. Even after two hours of fighting the blaze, smoke was still pouring out of different cracks in the building.
RBFD later reported that two cats perished and one hopefully found its way out.
“The fire was put out, and is now under investigation,” said Division Chief Paul Lepore.
Video of Redondo Beach, California apartment fire shot by Ronnie Riggs from Easy Reader News on Vimeo.
Video of apartment fire shot by Ronnie Riggs
