By Mary O’KEEFE

A birthday party for a local homeowner turned tragic on Saturday night when her home caught fire.

The Moradkhanian family had invited a few guests to their house in the 2900 block of Hopeton Avenue for homeowner Adrienne Moradkhanian’s birthday celebration. A couple of hours into the party, the house lights began to flicker and then the guests began to smell smoke, according to one of the attendees.

“We opened the attic door and flames shot out,” said a partygoer. They immediately left the home and called 911.

Los Angeles County Fire received the call at 9:32. By the time the first engine arrived at 9:40 p.m. smoke was visible from the attic roof, said Battalion Chief Mike Flocks.

Firefighters fought the flames at the roof and began to break through to ventilate but had a problem bursting through. Apparently when the roof was redone, there were several layers on the roof and one of the layers was metal making it hard for firefighters to cut through. Additionally, parts of the roof were damaged making it hard to ventilate.

Eight engines and two hook and ladders responded from L.A. County stations 63,19, and 82 with support from Rosemead, Arcadia and Santa Clarita. One firefighter fell off a small ladder during the course of fighting the fire and was transferred to a hospital complaining of back
pain.

“We’ll be fighting this fire all night,” said Flocks. They planned to bring different engines in throughout the night to continually battle the blaze.

The family was expected to stay with neighbors.

  fire, hopeton avenue