Tenant Says He Ignited Blast

A tenant who was working on his stove told authorities that he disconnected the gas pipe, went to the bathroom and then lighted a cigarette when he returned, igniting the explosion and fire that engulfed an Encino apartment building Friday.

The tenant, Dennis Cohen, 57, was burned over 55% of his body and remained in critical but stable condition Saturday at Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks.

“At this point there is no reason to doubt his story,” said Los Angeles Fire Chief William Bamattre, explaining that investigators interviewed Cohen in the hospital Friday and Saturday.

“Nothing our detectives have found suggest that there is any criminal activities involved in this at all,” added Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Gary Brennan during a briefing Saturday.

Accelerant-sniffing dogs brought to the scene Friday night did not detect anything unusual. And neither the LAPD bomb squad nor the criminal conspiracy units found anything suspicious, Brennan said.

But investigators said they intend to further interview Cohen, who was in extreme pain, heavily sedated and scheduled for surgery Monday.

“What we really want to find out is why this happened,” said Fire Capt. Joe Castro. “Are we dealing with an accident? Are we dealing with a potential suicide? We don’t really know at this point.”

Officials said that no one has been reported missing and estimate that about 300 people live in the 130-unit complex. One woman, Mary Jacobson, 76, who had been hospitalized with breathing problems, was released.

Ten units in one wing of the multi-building complex were destroyed and dozens of others were damaged. None of the tenants will be allowed to occupy their apartments for at least a week. The city’s Building and Safety Department will determine what buildings are safe to be inhabited.

Teams of investigators continued the delicate work Saturday of hand-picking through layers of debris in the three-story wing of the complex that exploded.

By midafternoon, they had reached Cohen’s second-story, one-bedroom apartment and found a stove with its gas pipe disconnected.

“The physical evidence is consistent with witness reports,” said Castro. “The flex tubing is disconnected from the stove.”

Investigators still do not know how long the gas pipe was left disconnected. Castro said the magnitude of a gas explosion is predicated not only on the amount of gas released, but also on the mixture of fuel and air.

“Sometimes a small amount of gas, mixed with a lot of air, can create a big explosion,” Castro said.

Although some residents had complained last week about smelling gas, a spokeswoman for Southern California Gas Co., which serves the building, had not received any complaints. Building manager Gayle Rymer also said that no one had reported any gas odors to her.

While investigators work, electricity and gas have been turned off. The force of the explosion damaged dozens of units, bursting many sliding glass balcony doors, blowing doors from their hinges, and throwing chunks of concrete and roofing material around the grounds. The stench of acrid smoke lingered in the corridor hallways Saturday.

About 10 tenants spent Friday night on cots set up in the gymnasium at Portola Middle School.

Scores of others showed up at the complex at 5324 Newcastle Ave. Saturday morning, waiting for police escorts into their units to retrieve whatever belongings they could carry away--clothing, pets, a bird cage, photo albums.

A few, like Michael Pollack, a 41-year-old fabric salesman who was at work at the time of the explosion, stood on the sidewalk, staring into the ruins that used to be his apartment.

“Everything I own is gone--pictures of my kids, stuff from my grandmother,” he said. “The only thing I have is the clothes on my back.”

Pollack had lived next door to Cohen on the second floor, but didn’t know the man, who the apartment manager said had lived there for only a few months.

A man who identified himself at the hospital as Cohen’s best friend said Cohen was born in New York and moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s. The man, who declined to give his name, said Cohen was home on disability leave and had few family members in the area.

Two police officers who were on patrol when they heard the explosion rushed to the building and saw Cohen stagger out in flames.

“He looked like he was melting,” said Officer Raymond Diaz. “He was in shock, trembling when paramedics took him away.”

The two officers then ran to help a woman on the second floor, screaming for them to rescue her wheelchair-bound mother.

As still-jittery tenants waited Saturday to enter their units, they recalled the scene and how they initially feared that they had been bombed, mindful of recent government-issued warnings that terrorists might strike American apartment buildings.

“I’m afraid to go and live there. I’m very nervous,” said Jehan Gasser, 68, who had lived in her unit for 21/2 years with her 5-year-old granddaughter. “My apartment is intact, but my concern is safety.”

Janie Poole, 24, was more worried about the immediate future. She had just moved to Los Angeles from Alabama to pursue a writing career while working as an assistant director at a private tutoring center. She had not even had time to buy a cell phone.

“I don’t have any money to put down for an apartment and I haven’t gotten my first paycheck yet,” Poole said. She spent the night on the floor of a friend of the building maintenance man. She showed up at the Red Cross shelter Saturday morning, where she was given a $25 voucher for groceries at Ralphs and a package with a toothbrush, shampoo and washcloth.

“My mom keeps saying, ‘Come home, come home,’” Poole said.

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Staff writer Stephanie Chavez contributed to this report.