Tragic Weekend Fire Claims a Life in the Highlands

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

A blaze erupted in a townhouse in the Highlands last weekend, claiming the life of Lisa Elliot, a friend who was staying in an upstairs bedroom where the fire started.

Judy Andersen, 74, was awoken downstairs by alarms and went upstairs to fight the flames with an extinguisher before firefighters ushered her from the building.

Andersen was treated on-scene for smoke inhalation and then taken to the hospital, where she received further attention but was sent home without being admitted.

Two days later, she told the Palisadian-Post that her lungs had recovered, but that she was still reeling from the “gruesome experience” and the tragedy of a lost friend.

Los Angeles Fire Department Stations 23 and 69 responded to the call at 17195 Palisades Circle just before 4 a.m. on Saturday, March 4. They arrived to see flames erupting from an upstairs window at the back of the two-story, 1,797-square-foot building.

It took 31 firefighters about 30 minutes to put out the blaze, which they confined to the bedroom and adjacent hallway. That was when they discovered Elliot in the bedroom, “beyond medical help,” said an LAFD spokesperson.

While the three-bedroom home contained three smoke alarms, LAFD reported “initial indications” that the alarm in the upstairs bedroom—where the fire started—had been disconnected from its power source.

Investigations into the fire’s origin continue, but LAFD told Andersen’s family that the cause appeared to be electrical.

Pam Conway, whose husband Chris is Andersen’s nephew, told the Post that Andersen awoke to the sound of smoke alarms and her Life Alert system—which automatically called the fire department before connecting an operator to a loudspeaker in her kitchen.

“They were asking, ‘Can anybody hear me?’” Conway said.

“They were calling out, ‘There’s a fire.’”

But Andersen, who walks with a cane and sometimes uses a wheelchair, did her best to fight the fire before escaping.

She made her way upstairs to find, “a line of flames right under Lisa’s door,” Conway told the Post. Andersen called out to Elliot repeatedly but never heard a response.

She grabbed a personal fire extinguisher downstairs and tried to get back to the flames, but thick smoke forced her to retreat. By then, firefighters had arrived at the scene.

Conway told the Post that Andersen’s 43-year-old townhouse had been in her family for years. She grew up in Pacific Palisades, and moved into the unit in 2001 after returning from New York.

Elliot was staying with Andersen indefinitely as a guest—Elliot’s parents were good friends of Andersen’s, and she was “helping her out,” family explained. Elliot, who was in her 50s, pitched in around the house and sometimes drove Andersen to appointments.

Officials are still determining the extent of the damage to Andersen’s home.

For now, she and her cat Fluffy—who was found hiding safely under a bed by responders—are staying with the Conway family.

[/mpoverlay]