Woman, Son Found Dead at Fire Scene

GARDEN GROVE —  The bodies of a young mother and her 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 spent the day trying to determine what sparked the blaze, which caused more than $2 million in damage to the 61-unit Crown Villa Apartments on Hazard Avenue. Residents of the apartment where the fire began blamed a faulty dishwasher that they said had recently been repaired.

Nine residents were injured during the Friday night fire, most of them suffering sprains or fractured bones from jumping the 10 to 12 feet from their second-story apartments to the ground. The first firefighters at the scene saw flames shooting from windows and people screaming and dangling from their balconies.

But two residents--Nho Phan, 28, and her son, Rick Pham, 2--could not escape the burning apartment they shared with Phan’s mother. 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. “She was always walking around with her baby. He was her life,” said Carol Brunetti, who lived a few doors away.

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

The apartment complex appeared to be up to code specifications, Barlag said. Because it was built 30 years ago, it was not equipped with a sprinkler system, which officials said could have slowed the fire.

Mohammad Iqbal, who lived in the apartment where the fire began, stood outside the ruined building 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.”

The family noticed smoke coming from the dishwasher around 8:30 p.m. Friday and ran out of the apartment. One family member then pounded on neighbors’ doors, yelling: “There’s a fire. People get out,” he said.