Los Angeles, USA - July 31, 2024

07/30/2024 08:25 pm (GMT-0700) | PASADENA, Calif. – Approximately 100 people were displaced due to a sprinkler activation and power outage at a transitional living facility Tuesday evening. Pasadena Fire, PD, and utilities responded to 235 E Holly St. Crews found sprinklers activated in 11 unites on the 3rd floor causing extensive flooding in the building. Residents at the old YMCA building are all either transitional, or assisted living in SRO (Single Room Occupancy) units within the structure. Per residents evacuated outside the building, the property is managed by Adobe Community Properties in conjunction with the city of Pasadena. Residents are suffering from homelessness, mental health, and drug issues. While emergency crews were at scene, a report of possible arson in progress prompted the response of Pasadena Fire Arson investigators to the location. It is unknown at this time if crews are going to evacuate the building entirely or allow residents to re-occupy. Sound on tape with Pasadena Fire Chief transcript as follows:

"Pasadena Fire was dispatched around 8:30 tonight for a sprinkler that had been activated on a fire alarm. Upon our arrival, a sprinkler had in fact been activated and the cause of that is under investigation but what we had after the fact was an actively flowing water issue that flooded about 8 units on the 4th floor, approximately 11 units on the 3rd floor and 1-2 units on the 2nd floor. This unit, 235 East Holley, is scheduled to have a major renovation starting in October and so they've been working to displace people out of the building, especially those that might have disabilities, because the elevator is going to be down for a period of time. And so thankfully, this occupancy is not at full capacity right now. So we have two issues. We have the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor, those occupancies that are displaced. They have about 30 vacant units here that we can easily put people in.

The greater issue is that there's no power still to the building. And so we're working with our city emergency manager, the county and LA County on a plan if we can't restore power to have transportation and some sort of housing temporarily for the night, at least through tonight for all the residents here. There's power coming to the lines to the building and so it's a building problem. They have electricians here on site that are building representative, electricians trying to work through the problem. We want to make sure that we're proactive and it's not going on in the morning and we're trying to come up with a plan. This is an older building. It's slated, as I mentioned, for a major renovation. They're all single room occupancies and many of the people here are struggling with mental health challenges or some sort of a disability challenge. So many of them have special needs and so they require some extra assistance frequently here. There's approximately 100 people that are still occupying this building. What we're finding right now is some of them have left and found other housing arrangements for the night, whether they're staying with neighbors, friends. And so we're trying to get an exact count. But right now we're using the number of 100 people that we would need to provide transportation and housing for the night.

The water evacuation here is pretty major. And so we have a commercial company that's going to be coming out also to assist because it's beyond the capabilities of the fire department. So we had about three fire engines, two ladder trucks, two chief officers here. We have our city emergency manager. We have our arson investigator. And then we've been looping in LA County Office of Emergency Services to help us with the additional needs should we need to do transportation and housing. And then we also have the Salvation Army route to provide some immediate food and hydration. We had a report that a resident tried to start a fire. And so with all in addition to all the flooding issues, we're doing an investigation on a possible arson. That would be a separate issue after the flooding. That was after the sprinkler."

- Pasadena Fire Chief, Chad Augustine