Woman, Baby Son Die in Blaze

The bodies of a young mother and her baby son were discovered early Saturday in the charred remains of a Garden Grove apartment complex, where a fast-moving fire forced more than a dozen terrified residents to leap for safety from their second-story balconies.

Investigators suspect a fire on a gas stove in one of the apartments sparked the blaze, which caused more than $2 million in damage to the 61-unit Crown Villa Apartments on Hazard Avenue. About 150 people were left homeless.

Nine residents were injured during the Friday night fire, most of them suffering sprained or fractured bones from jumping the 10-12 feet from their apartments to the ground.

The first firefighters at the scene saw flames shooting from windows and people dangling and screaming from their balconies.

But two residents could not escape their burning apartment. The coroner’s office had not positively identified the bodies Saturday because they were so badly burned.

But family members and friends said the victims were Nho Phan, 28, and her son, Rick Pham, 2. The pair shared an apartment with Phan’s parents, they said.

Phan was taking a shower when the blaze began and did not have time to get dressed, said her mother, Loc Luu. The young boy was lying on a couch at the time, drinking from a bottle.

Luu said she jumped from the balcony minutes before the smoke and flames became unbearable, injuring her wrist and ankle in the fall.

“I was shocked, scared, nervous,” Luu, 56, said through an interpreter Saturday as she returned to the apartment. She searched for any belongings but found none.

Friends and neighbors described Phan as a dedicated mother who split her time between weekly visits to a temple and playing with her son.

“She was always walking around with her baby. He was her life,” said Carol Brunetti, who lived a few doors away.

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It took 65 firefighters one hour to contain the blaze. Officials said the fire would have spread less quickly if residents had closed their doors.

Many apartments where the doors were closed sustained minor damage compared to those where the doors were left open, said Capt. David Barlag of Garden Grove Fire Department.

The complex appears to be up to safety code specifications, Barlag said.

Because it was built 30 years ago, the complex was not equipped with a sprinkler system that officials said could have slowed the fire.

Mohammad Iqbal, who lived in the ground-floor apartment where the fire began, stood outside his burned dwelling Saturday afternoon, trying to come to terms with the tragedy.

“I feel terrible,” Iqbal said. “I feel bad for the other families. When you’re living in a complex, all of us are like a family.”

While fire officials believe the blaze was sparked by food being cooked on the stove, Iqbal and his family believe the cause was a recently repaired dishwasher.

About 8:30 p.m. Friday, the family said, they noticed smoke coming from the dishwasher and ran out of the apartment.

One family member then pounded on neighbors’ doors yelling: “There’s a fire! People get out!”

Brunetti, a mother of two, was able to get out of her burning apartment without injury. She said she had just stepped out of the shower when she smelled the smoke. She pulled her children out of bed and covered their faces with towels.

Stuck on her balcony overlooking the asphalt parking lot, she said she was saved when a man from a neighboring complex jumped over the wall dividing their complexes and yelled at her to hand her children down to him.

“He was such a hero, and I didn’t even know him,” she said.

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The Lakdawala family, who lived next door to Phan and her son, also were saved by heroic strangers.

Warned by a thump at the front door that fire threatened their home, Rukshana Lakdawala, 43, her husband and two daughters raced outside to the balcony and called for help, their cries competing with the shrieks and shouts of other panicked tenants.

“We were so lucky. Two . . . guys happened to be driving by in a black car and they saw us on the balcony,” said Sadaf Lakdawala, 18. “They stopped and helped each of us down. They basically carried us to safety.”

On Saturday, the family’s thoughts turned to Rick Pham, the 2-year-old who was always at their apartment trying to get them to play with him.

Everyone on the hall knew him--he’d knock on any door or just wander in if he could.

“He was such a mischievous little boy, and people would shout at him to behave,” said Sadaf Lakdawala. “But now we wonder why did we shout at him? We didn’t know it was his last day on earth.”

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Apartment Fire Kills Two

A Garden Grove apartment fire Friday night left two people dead and 150 homeless after the blaze raced along the first-floor and spread to the second level.

Sources: Garden Grove Fire Department

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD/ Los Angeles Times