Fire scorches Westwood fertility clinic
By Michael Jahina
May 15, 2003 9:00 p.m.
A fire erupted in the Tyler Medical Clinic on Westwood Boulevard
and Le Conte Avenue on Thursday evening shortly before 7 p.m.
The third-floor fertility clinic suffered significant damage,
and the first and second floors of the 921 Westwood Blvd. building
had severe water damage.
The Los Angeles Fire Department deployed 20 fire companies
making up a total of 80 firemen, who were able to extinguish the
blaze in 49 minutes.
Five command teams and three ambulances were also at the scene,
though there were no casualties or injuries, according to Captain
Bill Wick, a press aide for the Fire Department who was on
scene.
The cause of the fire was unknown at press time. Wick said
investigators would remain at the scene throughout the night, but
it may take a few days to determine the exact cause.
The blaze caused several thousands of dollars in damage, and
that figure could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Wick
said.
The majority of the damage occurred to contents within the
building ““ damage caused to the building itself was
minimal.
The fire was especially difficult to extinguish because the
structure is extremely old and made of concrete and timber. The
roof was constructed solely from concrete, which didn’t allow
the fire to ventilate.
The Fire Department was forced to drill several holes into the
building’s roof and had to remove all the tiles from the
roof.
The building used to be a UCLA female dormitory in the 1920s,
according to Joshua Freedman ““ a UCLA psychiatrist who was on
the second floor when the fire erupted.
The second floor of the building holds approximately 25 offices
of psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and social
workers, according to one estimate, and was mostly empty when
alarms sounded at 6:45 p.m.
“I started smelling something smokey and went to look out
the window,” said Susann Bauman, a clinical psychologist who
was in her office on the second floor. “Then, I started to
hear sirens.”
The police, by that time in the building, “were yelling
“˜fire, you’ve got to get out ““ get out
now,'” she said.
Freedman was on the same floor and evacuated when he heard the
same yells from the police. When he exited the building at
approximately 6:50 p.m., the fire engines had not yet arrived.
The building has an old electric system, and its fuses blow
erratically, Freedman said.
Randy Robinson was in the UCLA Medical Library when the blaze
occurred, and said that at first it smelled like an electric
fire.
Hayato Ono, a third-year electrical engineering student, saw
smoke from atop his Glenrock Avenue apartment building where he was
waiting to see the lunar eclipse.
“I thought it was a show ““ then I saw the smoke and
thought “˜yeah, it’s a fire,'” he said from
across the street where he was watching the commotion.
Weyburn Avenue was closed off for the Farmers’ Market, and
vendors were unaware there was a fire going on less than one block
away.
“I heard sirens, but I had no idea what they were
for,” said Kyle Schroeder, owner of Crepes to Go, a vendor at
the Farmers’ Market.
With reports from Christina Jenkins, Daily Bruin Senior
Staff.
