An early morning apartment fire in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles took the life of a beloved pet and injured a woman Wednesday, fire officials said.
The fire was reported at about 12:20 a.m. in the 500 block of Rossmore Avenue in the upper level of a two-story apartment building.
Neighbors described the frantic moments when the tenant tried to save her dog.
"I know that she had gone inside and had seen the fire and decided to put the dog in another room," Bedr Farha said. "At which point that was a fatal mistake."
Firefighters contained the fire within about 20 minutes, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
The tenant survived, but her dog Chloe did not. She was injured and assessed by firefighters at the scene, the LAFD said. She refused transport to a nearby hospital.
Hours after the fire was extinguished, Capt. Gregg Avery stopped by the charred unit as part of LAFD's effort to help fire victims with immediate concerns.
"To be fire safe here it's all about housekeeping and working smoke detectors," he said. Which is "very, very important," he added.
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The blaze is under investigation and a separate focus would be made on how to prevent fires like this one again.
NBC4's Oleevia Woo contributed to this report.
