Small apartment fire breaks out on Gayley Avenue
By Carolyn McGough
Nov. 11, 2008 7:36 p.m.
A small apartment fire at 483 Gayley Ave. caused university police, community service officers and the Los Angeles City Fire Department to block off Gayley on Tuesday night.
Students stood in small crowds as firemen extinguished the flames.
Reports of the fire were first received by the Los Angeles Fire Department at 8:30 p.m., said Battalion Chief John Miller.
Miller said the fire was burning in one of the 16 units in the apartment building on Gayley Avenue. The apartment unit was unoccupied when the fire began, and the majority of other occupants self-evacuated, he said.
Recent UCLA alumnus Anthony Urban, who lives in the apartment directly below the one in which the fire originated, said he evacuated after one of his roommates smelled smoked.
But the fire took only 10 minutes to fully extinguish, Miller said.
Gayley was closed off stretching from the entrance to the quad in De Neve Plaza all the way to the intersection of Strathmore and Gayley Avenues.
Miller said it would take until about 10:30 p.m. for the firefighters to complete cleanup and fully assess the damage, at which time the street will should be reopened.
He said no injuries were reported.
