A woman said she sought refuge from smoke and flames in a ventilated bathroom with her two kittens as a fire burned through her Glendale apartment complex early Friday.
Angela Mazakas held her 4-month-old kittens while breathing through an open window in a bathroom after a neighbor yelled, "Fire! Fire!" just before 4 a.m. in the 28-unit apartment building on North Adams Street.
"I'm happy I'm alive," she said, while standing wrapped in a blanket against the 40-degree predawn temperatures outside the gutted apartment. "It's great."
Daniel Deangelas said there was no way he would have been able to get out through the front door as black smoke in the hallway prevented him from going anywhere.
"There was no way we could've gotten out through the hallway," he said. "It was just too smoky."
They were among four people treated for smoke inhalation.
The cats were OK.
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Two units were heavily damaged by fire. Smoke damaged 12 units, fire officials said.