Garden Grove apartment fire kills 6 cats; man and woman jump from 2nd-story window

GARDEN GROVE — It took more than 50 firefighters about 30 minutes to extinguish a two-story apartment-complex fire that forced 12 people out of their homes and claimed the lives of six cats.

When firefighters arrived at the complex, on the 13300 block of El Prado Avenue, at about 3 a.m. they learned that one man had jumped from his second-story apartment and saw a woman hanging from a window, said Capt. Thanh Nguyen of the Garden Grove Fire Department.

“By the time they saw her and got the ladder out, she had let go,” Nguyen said. “But, fortunately, she didn’t sustain any traumatic injuries.”

Neither were hurt from their jumps but were taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation as a precaution.

In the meantime, firefighters went to work extinguishing the fire, determining there weren’t any other people inside the apartments.

Nguyen said the cause of the fire was under investigation and appeared to have ignited accidentally. Firefighters believe the blaze began on the ground-floor, attached carport and spread up to three units, he said.

There was an estimated $600,000 in damage to the structure, and $60,000 to the contents, firefighters estimated.

Besides the six cats that died, three others were rescued and treated by firefighters. Ten adults and two children were displaced by the blaze, which prompted the evacuation of nearby units as well.

The Red Cross was on scene, helping the displaced residents who at least temporarily had no place to stay.

Nguyen said that the couple who jumped had good safety habits working for them.

“The two people who jumped had working smoke alarms in the apartment that alerted them,” Nguyen said. “Another good thing is that when they went to sleep that night, they closed their bedroom door, which was able to control some of the spread.”