Throughout our Department’s history we have experienced tragic loss of life incidents. Some resulted in new laws to protect people from future similar tragedies. One such incident occurred on September 13, 1970, when an arsonist set fire to the Ponet Hotel in downtown L.A.
At 5:31a.m. dispatchers received the call stating that there was fire in the lobby and all over the building. The four-story Ponet Square Hotel, built in 1907 was located at 1249 So. Grand Ave. very near Fire Station 10. On that fateful morning the hotel was occupied by over 117 people. Task Force 10, Heavy Duty Task Force 9 and Battalion 1 were dispatched at 5:32 a.m. The firefighters at 10’s could see the smoke and flames from the Ponet from the second floor of the station.
Task Force 10 arrived first under the command of Captain Jim Williams. Fire was coming out of the lobby and people were at the windows above on all four sides of the building. Engine 10 took a 2 ½ line into the lobby while the Truck put up the aerial and ground ladders to make rescues from the windows. At least 15 of the 25 persons who were injured leaped from windows before the firefighters could get ladders to them. Seven LAFD rescue ambulances were quickly called as the firefighting forces grew to 149 firefighters and 20 engines, 6 trucks and 2 snorkels. Despite the heavy and fast assault smoke and flames swept up open stairways and mushroomed on all floors. After nearly an hour of interior attack all members were relocated to an exterior attack with heavy streams due to the danger of structural collapse. At 7:00 a.m. the fire began to darken but it would be many hours before a complete search for bodies could be made. A total of 19 victims were found during the next several days as the building was systematically demolished. Thirteen of those victims were found to have resided on the top floor, a grim testimony to the built-in disaster potential of open, unprotected stairways and corridors.
The 24-hour clock times shown below are from the dispatcher’s tape recording:
0531 The dispatcher received a call from a store across Grand from the hotel: “There is a hotel on fire at Pico and Grand. (What is burning?) It’s burning in the lobby — it’s all over — the hotel looks like it is going up.”
0532 Task Force 10 was dispatched by amplified voice: “You have a fire in a hotel lobby.” Heavy Duty Task Force 9 was dispatched at the same time.
0534 10’s TFC, upon arrival, reported the lobby well involved, people hanging out the south and east windows and asked for a second-alarm assignment. The screams of hotel residents could be clearly heard throughout his radio message.
He ordered a 2 1/2″ line with spray nozzle into the lobby and went to the north side of the building. He saw fire move up from floor to floor at the windows off the north stairs. He returned to the apparatus radio to direct incoming companies and remembers hoping those people coming down didn’t hit his men. Truck 10 made rescues on Grand with aerial and ground ladders.
0536 Battalion 1 reported on scene, confirmed the second alarm and was told his assignment was Battalion 11, TF 10, HTF 3, 9 and 11.
0540 HTF 3 directed to south side.
HTF 11 directed to west side.
The results at this point were:
Engine 10 in lobby with 2 1/2″ near the elevator shaft with fire in three directions. They could knock it down in one direction, but that would reflash before they could darken another. Truck 10 continued to make rescues on Grand and on the north side.
HTF 9 was making rescues with aerial and ground ladders on the north. Engine 9 took a 1 1/2″ spray through the rear, third floor window and worked their way down the hall. At this point they were unable to knock down and hold both the fire coming up the north stairs and in the hall to the south. E209 (the triple) took a 1 1/2″ spray into the second floor stairway window but was unable to make headway.
HTF 3 on the Pico Street side was unable to get lines into the building. Every time they placed a ladder, people came down and the ladder had to be moved for someone else.
A girl jumped to her death from the fourth-floor north window nearest Grand. Some came down ropes contrived from sheets and blankets. One man tied his rope to his television. He landed in the lot and the television on him.
In almost every case, those rescued over ladders had to be helped onto or carried down the ladder. Some rescues were complicated by shouts of “forget him; take me.”
0542 Division Commander on scene. On arrival all the north fourth-floor windows were belching fire, as were three 18-inch by three-foot attic vents above them. On the east all fourth-floor windows and all third-floor windows, had fire forcefully coming out. All fire-escape windows and all windows in-between on the second-floor had fire showing.
0545 Four Task Forces (TF 26, 29, 30 and HTF 15) were ordered with instructions to put water on the fire.
0546 Initial heavy streams were used, but others were held ready because firemen with handlines were still inside. The penthouse apartment was only crumbling studs.
0555 Firemen were ordered out of the building. Heavy streams were ordered into operation. On the east were two ladder pipes, a wagon battery and a snorkel; on the roof of the one-story building to the west, two portable monitors and two 2 1/2″ hand lines. The last rescue was made at the southwest building corner.
0556 This many streams required more water than we were set up to supply. Three additional Battalion Chiefs were ordered and additional lines laid. The heavy stream effort was coordinated so that the water was given to a nozzle in effective position and then altered to another when the first area was darkened.
0608 The interior rooms continued to burn. A triple was ordered to patrol for brands. The street a block and a half away was wet from water falling from the smoke column.
Fatalities and Injuries
Hotel records, the manager’s memory, and conversations with survivors indicate that there were 117 residents or guests in the hotel at the time of the fire.
There were nineteen known fatalities. Some of the bodies were so badly burned that cause of death could not be determined. Thirteen of the victims were fourth-floor occupants. Of these, one jumped and five were found in their rooms; the others in the hall or in the rubble. Two fatalities were third-floor occupants; one found in his room and one in the rubble below. Four fatalities were second-floor occupants. Two found in their rooms; one in the adjoining room; and one in the hall just outside the room.
There were 25 known treated injured, with injuries ranging from fractured back to compound fractures of both legs and both ankles to minor cuts and burns. Fifteen were still in the hospital three days after the fire. Nine of the injured were from the fourth floor. One jumped, holding his mattress to land on in the parking lot. One was rescued by firemen.
While an accurate count is impossible, 60 to 80 people, some seriously injured, were removed by firemen from the hotel or the adjoining roof within 21 minutes after the first equipment arrived. The 25 injured were transported to hospitals by fire personnel.
The LAFD’s Arson Unit named Don Brian as chief investigator of the incident. Brian and his team had found the point of origin on the first floor and near an open stairway. The fire was determined to be incendiary and after hundreds of interviews, on October 9, 1970, Arson investigators arrested a tenant of the hotel for the crime. Alejandro Figueroa was found guilty of one count of arson and 19 counts of first degree murder and sentenced to life. The Ponet disaster, the city’s worst apartment hotel fire at the time, resulted in an Ordinance passed by the City Council. It required buildings more than two stories in height to have enclosed stairways and corridors protected by self- closing doors. This ordinance has saved countless lives through the years.
Frank’s note: I was a Captain at that time and went to the fire in the morning where I spoke to Captain Jim Williams from Task Force 10 about what he saw and the initial actions taken by the Task Force. It was one of those nightmare fires with people jumping out of windows or waiting to be rescued in the upper floors and a major fire spreading from the lobby to the 4th floor. The “Ponet Ordinance” has saved countless lives in these types of apartment buildings in L.A since it was enacted.
Submitted by Frank Borden