LBFD contains high-rise apartment fire

East Broadway’s Sherwood House was site of large blaze in 1995

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The Long Beach Fire Department responded to an apartment fire on July 8, and though firefighters swiftly contained the blaze, some residents were reminded of a larger fire that devastated the apartment complex more than two decades ago.

The fire occurred inside the walls of a fifth floor apartment at the Sherwood House, at 410 E. Broadway. The tenant, an Oceanside fireman, discovered smoke in the room and called the LBFD immediately, according to Fire Chief RJ Tucillo. The building was evacuated and nobody was injured, he said.

“We really had to open up and make sure it didn’t go anywhere,” Tucillo said. “It really wasn’t a big fire to go and talk about.”

The 150-unit building was the site of a large inferno in 1995, which began on the top floor of the high-rise after a smoldering pipe ignited an hours-long blaze, according to Judy Vining, who has lived in the building for 42 years. She said after the complex was evacuated, tenants stood outside in the freezing December air, watching the fire department struggle to contain the flames.

In total, the 1995 fire destroyed 17 apartments, but there were no reported injuries. Some residents weren’t able to move back into the building for two years, and Vining said the fire earlier this month brought back those memories.

“By the time I got downstairs, they said it was contained…but I can tell you that for the people who had been there in 1995, the [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] was palpable,” she said. “[Back then], we literally stood on the street and watched the flames leaping through the roof for hours.”

Though the fire a few weeks ago was quickly extinguished, residents on social media are citing the incident as reason to advocate against the building of tall structures in Long Beach, primarily the 12-story towers being proposed along the boardwalk at the site of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, at 530 W. Broadway.

“Certainly having lived through it, I would be concerned,” Vining said in reference to fire safety in taller buildings like the ones recently proposed. “I would want to make sure that everything was possible to be done that could be done with a building of that size.”

The Long Beach Neighbors Against Overdevelopment, a group of residents, building board members and civic leaders geared toward stopping Wittek Development’s plan at the HALB site, questioned on its Facebook page whether the LBFD is equipped to operate in buildings that size.

Sam Pinto, a local firefighter, said studies have shown that fires in high-rise buildings are typically more labor intensive to combat, even those that are built with fire-suppression systems, including standpipes that connect to fire hoses.

In terms of equipment, Tuccillo said that with newer buildings, fireproofing has greatly improved and sprinkler systems help fight the flames while firefighters are en route to the scene.

“There’s a lot that’s going to happen before we even get there; and when we get there…we have the ladders, the trucks and everything we need,” Tucillo said. “Can we go higher than 10 or 12 floors? No we can’t, but that’s what these new buildings under the new fire suppression systems are geared for.”