Early Morning Mar Vista Apartment Fire Caused by Careless Smoking

12:05 pm. Updated from an earlier report

Firefighters have determined that careless smoking started the fire at an apartment block on 1162 W. Culver Boulevard early Saturday morning, which caused $90,000 worth of damage.

Firefighters were called to the blaze at 6:44 am, which began on the ground floor of the building.  Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department told Mar Vista Patch that it took 42 firefighters approximately 20 minutes to extinguish the flames.

At the scene, Capt. Jaime Brown of Engine 67 from Playa Vista told Patch that the tenant was in the ground floor apartment at the time of the fire but managed to escape safely.

The tenant, a young man in his early 20s named Aaron, refused to speak with reporters. Dressed in gray sweatpants and a gray hooded sweatshirt, he appeared visibly shaken.

The fire gutted the apartment, and most of the furniture, which had been dragged out to the street, was destroyed.

A tenant by the name of Enrico who lived in the apartment above Aaron said he was working at his computer around 6:15 a.m. when he smelled what he thought was burning plastic. "I thought my computer was on fire at first," he said. "But then I went to the front door and saw a cloud of smoke coming up the stairs and I quickly ran out of the building."

Enrico's apartment also suffered fire damage and a lot of his furniture was also destroyed in the blaze.

Marc Gotteherer, who lives in the apartment next door to Aaron, said he woke up smelling smoke and his smoke detector went off. "I ran out of the door immediately," he said. Gotteherer's apartment was not directly damaged in the fire but he said there was a lot of soot on the walls.

Humphrey told Patch the fire caused $70,000 worth of structural damage and $20,000 worth of content damage. Both Aaron and Enrico were displaced by the fire, along with Enrico's roomate, and were referred to the American Red Cross.