A woman was rushed to a hospital in critical condition this morning after she was rescued from a blaze that broke out at an apartment southwest of the Traffic Circle area.
Multiple 911 callers reported the fire shortly after 3:30 a.m. at a four-unit apartment complex on Euclid Avenue near Fountain Street, said Long Beach Fire Capt. Jack Crabtree. Several callers also told dispatchers they believed someone was still inside the apartment.
Before firefighters arrived, a neighbor broke one of the apartment’s windows and began spraying the flames with a garden hose, Crabtree said.
“Heroic efforts from the neighbors” helped firefighters “quickly locate and rescue” a woman in her 40s who was still inside the apartment, Crabtree said.
She was taken to a hospital in critical condition from burn injuries, he said.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze within 15 minutes because the neighbors’ quick actions “likely reduced further fire spread and damage,” Crabtree said.
Investigators were working to determine the cause of the fire.