Fire officials credited a smoke alarm with giving a mother and her three children time to escape safely when a blaze broke out Wednesday in their North Hills apartment.
Firefighters sent to the two-story building in the 8400 block of Langdon Avenue about 12:45 p.m. extinguished the flames in the upper-floor unit in 12 minutes, said Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Humphrey said the mother was in the bathroom when she heard the smoke alarm. She came out to find her three children — all under 7 years old — sleeping or resting on a bed, with smoke coming out from underneath, and rushed them outside.
Firefighters determined that an electrical fire started underneath the bed, charring the bedroom.
“The blaze could easily have taken some lives,” Humphrey said.
The American Red Cross will help provide the family with temporary lodging.
— City News Service