LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Funeral plans were pending Saturday for the Los Angeles city firefighter fatally injured Wednesday when a ceiling collapsed on him during a blaze at a Hollywood Hills home.
Glenn L. Allen, a 36-year veteran of the force, died at 12:15 p.m. Friday, said Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department. He was 61 and about a year from retirement. Fire officials have said little about the nature of his injuries. An autopsy will determine the cause of death.
Allen was injured along with five other firefighters Wednesday night when a fire broke out at a home in the 1500 block of North Viewsite Drive.
None of the injured firefighters, two of which were county firefighters, were believed to have been seriously hurt. Their names were not made public. The most seriously injured appeared to be a Los Angeles firefighter who suffered a twisted or fractured ankle.
Fire Capt. Jaime Moore said the area above the ceiling was saturated with water from a sprinkler system, because a plastic sprinkler pipe had “burned through,” and that caused the ceiling to collapse.
The owners of the house, who had been living there for only about a week, escaped the fire unharmed. Firefighters estimated the damage at $250,000.
Fire Chief Millage Peaks mourned the department’s loss at a news conference with the mayor and the police chief Friday.
“This is a tough time for the Los Angeles Fire Department and it’s a tough time for the Allen family,” he said.
Allen’s death marked the first fatal on-the-job injury suffered by a Los Angeles firefighter since Brent Lovrien died March 26, 2008, when he cut into an electrical vault at La Tijera and Sepulveda boulevards, triggering an explosion.
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
