A two-alarm fire damaged the roof of a downtown apartment building Wednesday night but there were no injuries to residents or firefighters.
According to Santa Monica Fire Department Captain Patrick Nulty, 9-1-1 calls began coming into the dispatch center at about 8:19 p.m. on April 24 for a fire at the Pacific Plaza apartments located at 1431 Ocean Ave.
“Firefighters arrived on scene in three minutes to find a large volume of fire visible on the roof of the 15-story residential high-rise apartment building,” he said in a release. “Firefighters were required to ascend up the stairwells to access the fire, carrying tools and special hose packs which were used in the fire fight. Fire Engines pumped water into the buildings ‘Stand Pipe’ system, a required fire protection feature within all high-rise structures that allows Firefighters to connect their hoses to on upper floors.”
Nulty said the fire was confined to the roof of the building and didn’t impede the ability of residents to evacuate the structure. However, he said the size of the building increased the complexity of the operation.
“The size of the structure and the potential for growth is always a concern for us,” he said. “It had a lot of residential units with a lot of people inside, from that perspective, it’s always a major concern of ours.”
Nulty said all 35 on duty Santa Monica firefighters were on the scene Wednesday night. He said it took about 28 minutes to bring the fire under control and the flames consumed about 50 percent of the roof. Three units had minor water damage but no-one was hurt.
