In L.A., Holiday Brings Joy and Pain

Christmas Day dawned glorious in Los Angeles. The sky was scoured clean, and the mountains jumped out in sharp relief. The freeways lay empty, businesses shuttered, neighborhoods wrapped in peaceful quiet.

On one quiet block in South Los Angeles, the charred remains of a small stucco apartment building stood out in stark contrast to the surrounding peace. A predawn fire ignited by an unattended candle had swept through the building, critically injuring three young girls.

The acrid smell of smoke still clung to a soggy heap of clothes and twisted mattresses outside the building in the late morning, while not far away other families picnicked and played, soaking up the sun.

Friday was a day of celebration and family for some; tragedy and mishap for others. In Long Beach, officials surveyed the damage caused Christmas Eve when a large water main broke, flooding Pacific Coast Highway and nearby businesses.

Los Angeles County inmates received a holiday blessing from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony. And at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, the three burn victims lay in critical condition.

It was a day of solitude and festivity, joy and sudden disaster. It was Christmas, but in the end, it was a day much like any other.

Neighbors in the 5300 block of Cimarron Street in South Los Angeles were awakened in the early morning darkness by the sound of sirens and the smell of smoke. They rushed outside to see the downstairs apartment of a four-unit building engulfed in flames.

“As soon as I saw it, I thought, ‘Oh, Lord, I hope the kids didn’t get burned,’ ” said Dora Holguin, who lives across the street. “What a Christmas.”

Three sisters--ages 5, 3 and 10 months--suffered second- and third-degree burns and remained in critical condition Friday. The hospital declined to release further information Friday night at the request of the parents. Their parents, ages 27 and 23, were treated for smoke inhalation and released.

The blaze reportedly caused $20,000 in structural damage and destroyed $10,000 in furnishings and other property.

Fire officials said the blaze was accidentally started by a candle in the bedroom, which may have been lit because the family was moving out of the building and had already had the power turned off, according to a woman at the apartment Friday who identified herself as the manager but did not give her name. Without power, the electric smoke alarms would not have worked, she added.

“I didn’t even know they were still in there,” she said.

She and other neighbors described the sisters as happy and talkative children.

“They were three laughing, bubbling kids,” she said.

As she inspected the scorched walls of the building, children at nearby Jim Gilliam Recreation Center in Baldwin Hills raced up hilly paths on bicycles, and sweating soccer players chased a ball across a lush green field.

Panzie Johnson and her 10-year-old daughter Sherry did stretching exercises along a path, getting ready for a Christmas Day run around the park.

“We spent the morning at home, enjoying each other and being grateful that we have one more day together,” Johnson said. “It’s a beautiful day.”

In Griffith Park, Sandra Molina spread out jugs of soda on a picnic table as beef for tacos sizzled on the barbecue; her son Byron, 10, his sister and their cousins set up his new miniature table tennis set on a nearby table. Picnicking in the park is a tradition for their family.

“What else could you ask for?” said Sandra’s brother, Mario Martinez. “Look, it’s a beautiful day. It’s not too crowded and you have the whole park to yourself.”

“We get to be together,” added Martinez’s 13-year-old son, Mario Jr.

Making the Day Brighter

For those who weren’t with family, there was still a moment of pause and holiday commemoration. At the Men’s Central Jail, about 300 inmates attended Cardinal Mahony’s annual Christmas Mass. Sheriff Leroy D. Baca joined the crowd in the jail’s chapel to watch the services “held for inmates unable to celebrate the holiday at home.”

City firefighters tried to make the holiday brighter for a family of eight adults and a 2-year-old who were left homeless Christmas morning after their North Hollywood apartment caught fire. The blaze in the 11600 block of Victory Boulevard, which caused a reported $20,000 in damage, is still under investigation.

Upon discovering the family’s charred Christmas packages, firefighters replaced the gifts with items donated to the Fire Department’s “Spark of Love Toy Drive,” according to Brian Humphrey, a Fire Department spokesman.

There was a medieval-style marriage proposal in Van Nuys when a Los Angeles firefighter donned a knight’s armor and borrowed a friend’s white horse to ride into a fire station where his unsuspecting beloved was enjoying a Christmas dinner.

Dismounting his steed, Randy Laur, 49, fell to one knee before Kristie Taylor and asked, “Fair lady, will you be my wife?” Taylor laughed and said yes, bursting into tears as assembled firefighters, also dressed as knights, cheered.

In Long Beach, city workers spent Christmas Day cleaning the muddy damage left after a 74-year-old water main under Pacific Coast Highway broke Christmas Eve, releasing a torrent of water that lifted the street a foot and flooded 30 nearby businesses.

Seventeen people staying at a nearby motel were evacuated to a temporary shelter at Long Beach Polytechnic High School late Thursday because of the flooding, then were moved to another motel Friday. The water also created a 30-foot-long sinkhole in the street, which must be replaced completely. The water main has since been put back in service. As the crews worked, traffic was temporarily diverted from Pacific Coast Highway at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, but officials said one lane was reopened to traffic in both directions by Friday evening.

The break was caused by cold weather and the age of the pipe, which was due to be replaced in 1999, said Bob Cole, general manager of the Long Beach Water Department.

Farther up the coast, thousands came to stroll and skate on the boardwalk, while a lazy offshore wind polished the sea into smooth blue glass. The waves were erratic and small at best, but hundreds of surfers bobbed in their wetsuits, waiting for the rare set.

“There wasn’t much surf,” said county lifeguard Capt. Robert Moore at Hermosa Beach. “But obviously people needed to try out their new Christmas presents.”

Reveling in L.A. Weather

Santa Monica resident Lisa Willey-Fein, her infant daughter Anna Marie and her 4-year-old son Jackson were among the dozens who clustered along Santa Monica beach Friday afternoon, mostly staying back from the icy water.

Earlier in the morning, Willey-Fein called her parents in Boston with her new videoconferencing device. “I saw everyone in their sweaters shivering with the fire in the background, and we said, ‘OK, we’re going to the beach now,’ ” Willey-Fein said.

Nearby, Larry Nelson of Santa Monica lazed in a lifeguard tower, wearing shorts and a jacket against the ocean breeze. “I’m doing the holiday my own way,” he said.

Since moving to Southern California from Kansas 14 years ago, Nelson, 46, has spent Christmas and New Year’s engaged in outdoors activities, from mountain climbing to building sand sculptures.

“It used to be that not having snow on the ground seemed odd, but not anymore,” Nelson said, surveying the blue ocean and the Palisades to the north. “This is how Christmas is supposed to be.

“It’s a lot more fun than being in Kansas.”

Times staff writers Solomon Moore and Joe Mozingo contributed to this story.