Fire Lover Read Free

the sister-in - law of Carolyn Krause, who was a community-service officer for the Glendale Police Department, saw a blue Dodge that belonged to the Glendale arson unit, and standing by the car were John Orr and his partner, police officer Dennis Wilson.
    After checking in vain at the triage area for her missing sister-in-law, Karen Krause approached the arson investigators and told them that Carolyn Krause was missing.
    John Orr told her that they would keep an eye out for Carolyn, but that until the fire was suppressed nobody could get near the building except the firefighters - the implication being that a search for bodies would be hours away.
    Karen Krause stayed as the rest of the family arrived, and they remained for several hours. Waiting.
    The fire chief of South Pasadena was at a fire-prevention class in Los Angeles when he learned of the disaster at Ole's. Chief Gene Murry excused himself, jumped in his staff car, and sped to South Pasadena, arriving close to 8:30 p. M.
    He saw that one of the crews was attempting to breach an exterior wall in order to penetrate it with heavy "master stream poles," an appliance that could deliver more than five hundred gallons of water per minute. While Chief Murry was assuming command, he learned of the fire in progress at Von's Market on the same street, just a few minutes away. He couldn't believe it.
    Chief Murry spotted John Orr snapping photos, and asked if he would assist by going to Von's to conduct an investigation. It wouldn't be until midnight that the fire chief could declare that 125 firefighters had the Ole's blaze under control.
    Moments before the smoke was observed in the housewares department, Patricia Parham, the mother of Carolyn Krause, had gone to Ole's Home Center to see her only daughter. Patricia Parham was with Carolyn's two children: her son, age three, and her two-year-old daughter. Mrs. Parham picked up her daughter's house keys so that she could take the grandchildren home and put them to bed.
    Back at Carolyn's house, Mrs. Parham received three phone calls in quick succession, one from Carolyn's father-in-law, one from Carolyn's sister-in-law, and one from Carolyn's brother. When Mrs. Parham raced back to Ole's parking lot, the building was engulfed, and she never saw her daughter again.
    Sometime after 8:00 p. M. the phone rang in the Cetina residence. Luis, Jimmy's older brother, picked it up and a family friend said, "How's your brother? Is he home?"
    She seemed upset, so Luis said, "Why?"
    And she said, "Because there's a fire where he works."
    Luis's mother asked him in Spanish what was wrong, but Luis answered, nothing. Then he ran out to his car and drove to Ole's.
    Fair Oaks was cordoned off by police cars, so he had to detour and take Orange Grove Avenue, finally parking in a handicapped zone near Ole's. He jumped from the car, leaving the lights on and his keys inside, and just started to run, until a cop stopped him and said, "You can't leave your car there."
    Luis turned to him and cried, "My brother works there!"
    The cop hesitated, but let him go.
    When Luis reached the flaming building he spotted an employee whose name he couldn't remember, and he yelled, "Where's my brother?"
    The young man said, "I don't know!" Then he added, "I think he might still be in the building!"
    Luis Cetina then ran to the north side of the building and entered an open area, splashing through four inches of water where the sprinklers had activated.
    Another Ole's employee whom he recognized was standing there watching, and Luis shouted, "Where's my brother?"
    The young man said to him, "I saw him a little while ago! He went back inside!"
    "Back inside?" Luis cried.
    "Yeah, there were people banging on the door! One of those fire doors that dropped down!"
    Then Luis Cetina, not knowing where to run, circled around to the back, to the door through which Jim Obdam had escaped. The door was open now, but impassable. Luis returned back the other way to the fire